History
Fukushima is large enough to contain three fairly distinct regions — coastal Hamadori, central Nakadori (where the capital sits), and mountainous, inland Aizu — and most of what defines the prefecture’s older identity comes from Aizu, whose samurai loyalty to the Tokugawa shogunate made it one of the last and most determined holdouts against the new Meiji government in 1868.
Fukushima and the wider world
That resistance had a genuine European connection. During the Boshin War, France had been arming and training the shogunate’s forces before its collapse, and at least one French military advisor, Jules Brunet, resigned his commission rather than abandon his Japanese allies — fighting alongside domains sympathetic to the old order, including forces connected to Aizu, even after his own government officially withdrew support. Brunet’s story is often cited as one of the inspirations behind the 2003 film “The Last Samurai,” though that film’s plot is fictional and not a direct retelling.
The prefecture’s more recent, much heavier-weight international moment came on March 11, 2011, when the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on the coast — an event that became globally synonymous with the prefecture’s name. It’s worth being precise about scale: the affected area is a specific stretch of coastline, not the whole prefecture, which is roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. Extensive monitoring, decontamination, and rebuilding since 2011 have reopened the large majority of the prefecture, including Aizu and most of Nakadori, to normal life and travel; a shrinking evacuation zone remains in place immediately around the plant itself. Check current official guidance for the latest status before planning a visit to the coastal Hamadori area specifically.
Neighbors: Fukushima and the rest of Tohoku
Fukushima is Tohoku’s southernmost and closest prefecture to Tokyo, functioning as something of a gateway between the Kanto and Tohoku regions — closer to the capital, in both distance and, at times, cultural feel, than Tohoku’s more northern prefectures.
Getting there and getting around
Fukushima Station and Koriyama Station are both Tohoku Shinkansen stops, roughly 1.5-2 hours from Tokyo. Aizuwakamatsu is reached by local train from Koriyama; a rental car is useful for the Bandai-Goshikinuma area.
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