Living near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Hisayuki Sakagami might have once been seen as a bit odd, generating his family's electricity through solar power and small windmills.
Living near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Hisayuki Sakagami might have once been seen as a bit odd, generating his family's electricity through solar power and small windmills.
Today, he is seen as prescient, becoming alarmed at the risks of nuclear power following the Chernobyl disaster and dedicating his life to renewable energy.
Although Sakagami was forced to evacuate from his home after the nuclear crisis unfolded in March, he has been busy helping victims in ways only he and his peers can.
They recently installed 24 solar panels at no charge at evacuation centers in the stricken areas in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.
Sakagami, 45, works out of a tent he set up in Karakuwa Peninsula, near Kesennuma, a coastal city in Miyagi Prefecture, also struck by the calamity.
The project to supply the panels at the shelters such as Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture and Minami-Sanriku in Miyagi Prefecture was a joint collaboration with his peers.
They, like him, preach a lifestyle in which they practice self-sufficiency through solar power.
When the country's worst disaster in postwar years hit, Sakagami was at home in the village of Kawauchi in Fukushima Prefecture, 24 kilometers from the crippled plant.
It was the home he had built in the forest and had spent the past 13 years to make a living he championed with his electricity needs provided through natural sources.
Sakagami lived there with his wife and two children, aged 4 and 2, until the March 11 disaster triggered the nuclear crisis.
He decided to abandon their home when a local radio station reported that the plant was failing to circulate cooling water to reactors. He knew instantly that core meltdowns were imminent.
When he closed the door of his home as they left, he told his wife, "People in Chernobyl were forced to leave their hometown for good as we are now."
Sakagami awoke to the enormous risks involved in nuclear power when he heard about the 1986 Chernobyl incident. Back then, he was 19 and working as an auto mechanic.
The world's worst nuclear accident shook him, and had him wondering whether hosting nuclear power plants in their backyard was a sound decision.
He embarked on research to find out what approaches other countries took toward meeting their energy needs.
After arming himself with a vast knowledge of an alternative sustainable way of life, he decided to make his living through sales and installations of solar power equipment. He also became self-sustaining on the home front, supplying his family's electricity, water and other basic necessities through renewable energy sources.
"It is the life you make when you walk in accordance with the natural movement of light, wind and water, and not having them controlled by you," he said.
Sakagami calls himself a "stray marten," likening his nonconformist nature to the small animal that is not known to run in packs.
"He is so straightforward that he may come across as clumsy," a friend of Sakagami described him.
Sakagami always carries portable solar panels and three dosimeters made overseas to monitor radiation levels to be safe.
He is set to travel across Japan to get children interested in solar power as part of his new undertaking. It is also a journey to hunt for new land where he will build his new home and raise his children.