Rumors about the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant Disaster: the Impact of Information and Place of Residence on the Purchase Decisions of Consumers

The great earthquake that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, triggered a nuclear power plant accident. As a consequence, many marine product processing industries and fishery resources were damaged. This paper discusses the determinants of the rumors related to the radioactivity, which seem to affect the purchase decisions of processed marine products in the Miyagi prefecture. Specifically, we focus on the impact of information and place of residence of consumers. An original internet survey was conducted with 420 consumers throughout Japan on September 26 and 27, 2013. Further, we analyzed how the information and the distance from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant affected the purchasing desire of processed marine products in the Miyagi prefecture. We employed an instrument variable approach for ordered probit models to explore the factors affecting harmful rumors. We did not find a significant correlation between information and rumors about the products being harmful to the health of the consumer, when using instrumental variables. On the other hand, the distance from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was found to be correlated with such rumors. This study suggested that the farther away people lived from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the higher was their tendency to avoid buying processed marine products made in the Miyagi prefecture, without gathering relevant information about the consumability of the products