
The Asahi reports (Japanese), that there is a shortage of volunteer help in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures. Over the last three months, around 420,000 have been active in the area which compares with a total of 1,170,000 who moved to help over the three months following the Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. As the graph above shows, there was a peak around the time of the Golden Week holidays but numbers have since tailed off. Some suggest that "disaster fatigue" has kicked in while others point to the logistical problems of operating in the affected areas. Volunteers had easy access to the urban areas hit by the Kobe quake but must cover much larger areas hit by the recent disaster. Many have no places to stay which means the level of organization required is much higher. In Fukushima, concerns about the situation with the nuclear plants are likely deterring some from helping in that prefecture.