It's not the stuff of legends, but a rumor has been circulating among used car dealers about a used vehicle with a high radioactive level that has been popping up for sale in various locations in Japan.
It's not the stuff of legends, but a rumor has been circulating among used car dealers about a used vehicle with a high radioactive level that has been popping up for sale in various locations in Japan.
I decided to put the pedal to the metal and pursue the vehicle in question.
Having obtained its vehicle identification number (VIN), I headed off in hot pursuit to a transport ministry branch office, where I found that the latest owner of the vehicle was a car exporter in Okayama Prefecture.
So, I visited the owner's company. It was a small shop, with just seven to eight vehicles on display along the road.
The manager chose his words carefully, after learning that I was a newspaper reporter.
“I thought your visit would be about this case,” he said.
He said he bought the vehicle in question--a minivan with a license plate of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture--in late July.
He added that he paid 1.43 million yen ($18,700) at an auction in Chiba Prefecture for car dealers.
He brought the vehicle to Osaka Prefecture, intending to export it to Southeast Asia. At Sakai-Senboku Port in Izumi-Otsu, he had the vehicle's radioactivity level tested in August before prefectural government staff.
The vehicle's radiation level tested at 110 microsieverts per hour, far exceeding the government limit for export containers of 5 microsieverts per hour.
“I decontaminated repeatedly after the test,” the exporter said, “and retested the filter of the air conditioner, the wipers and tires, replacing them thoroughly, but the radiation level dropped only to 30 microsieverts per hour.”
What did he do next?
“I decided to sell the vehicle in Japan, for I couldn't afford to lose the money,” the man said.
He applied for a cancellation of the registration at the local transport ministry branch office and removed the original license plate, he said.
He put the vehicle up for auction in September in Osaka city, but it did not sell.
The next week it sold for 1.21 million yen in an auction in Kobe.
He said he does not know the successful bidder as the system keeps buyers' names secret.
The vehicle became known as a "no-no" among car dealers in the Kansai region, who dubbed it “a vehicle one should never get involved with,” according to another car dealer.
Dealers in the area were cautioned about the vehicle’s VIN, which was the same one I had obtained.
If one is exposed to a dose of 30 microsieverts per hour for two hours every day, his or her radiation exposure will exceed the government’s evacuation standard of 20 milisieverts a year.
Wondering where the vehicle was contaminated, I searched documents and came up with the first owner’s name--a company selling automobiles in Fukushima Prefecture.
I visited a company dealership in Iwaki, which was about 40 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
I talked with the manager.
“I heard a male resident of Iwaki had bought the vehicle three years ago,” the manager said. “He was parking the vehicle near the nuclear plant when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck. I also heard the man paid the balance of its loan in July before he sold it to another secondhand vehicle dealer.”
Where is the vehicle now?
It was reportedly put up for auction in Saitama Prefecture earlier in October, but was not sold.
An eyewitness reported that it was auctioned off in Chiba Prefecture the following week.
I called the auctioneer to ask the name of the winning bidder, but he declined to give it, saying it was against regulations.
That was the end of the road for my dogged pursuit of the radioactive vehicle.
An exporter said it is not uncommon for nonexportable vehicles to be sold back into the domestic market.
“It is just the tip of the iceberg,” the exporter said. “Decontamination would be difficult if high radiation were measured (of vehicles for exports). This is why such vehicles are brought to auctions in Japan.”
If a dealer who purchased such a problem vehicle newly registers it, it may be sold under a license plate from a different area, making it difficult to trace it from the previously registered license plate number.
Previous license plates are not recorded on the automobile inspection certificate, and that information is not obtainable unless one goes to a transport ministry branch office.