Tokyo Shoppers Strip Stores as Nuclear Risk Sparks Panic
Tokyo residents emptied store shelves of daily necessities and stocked up on gasoline as the risk of nuclear radiation leaks from a facility north of the Japanese capital escalated.
Seven & I Holdings Co., Japan’s biggest retailer, said its Ito-Yokado supermarkets are being emptied daily of necessities such as water, rice and batteries as soon as fresh supplies arrive. “Every day the stores provide a certain amount, but as soon as a shop opens, the products disappear,” Hirotake Henmi, a spokesman for Seven & I, said in a phone interview.
Workers today struggled to avert the risk of a meltdown at a crippled nuclear plant 135 miles north of Tokyo as Cabinet Chief Secretary Yukio Edano said radiation readings around the complex reached “a level that could harm people.”
