New Pokemon Home Medal Event Does Not, In Fact, Include A Radioactive Chansey

You should visit Japan. You should check out Fukushima. You shouldn’t venture too far into Futaba Town in Fukushima, Japan. Not even for a special-edition Pokemon Home Medal, which is precisely what you’ll get – alongside a potential dollop of exposure to radioactive material – if you visit one of the over 300 Poke Lids strewn throughout the island nation.

At least, that’s what folks are saying online today. I’m here to set the record straight. But it is admittedly a bit alarming that the Chansey-themed Poke Lid in Fukushima isn’t far from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which happened to suffer a massive meltdown event in 2011 when the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami damaged its equipment.

Pac-Man looking shocked in Pac-Man World 2 Repac.

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“Details of my sector’s energy should be between me and Ms. Pac, thank you very much.”

False Alarm

Namie Park in Fukushima, Japan.

There are 26 Chansey-themed Poke Lids in Fukushima, if my research is to be believed. Fukushima Travel reports that Chansey is the prefecture’s “official support Pokemon”, you see. So, if I’m following along properly here, there are 25 other Poke Lids that’ll net you the Chansey-themed medal in Pokemon Home, should you happen to make the trip.

The one that’s causing all the hubbub – including on Reddit – points out that the Futaba Town Poke Lid is fairly close to the nuclear reactor. Which is true. What’s less true is that it’s straight-up deadly to get that close to the reactor. As pointed out by Redditor sun-caster in a link to the same Fukushima Travel blog I mentioned earlier, the radiation levels in the vicinity aren’t too bad these days, and you can freely travel throughout most of the original disaster area.

If there’s a constant on the internet, it’s the quick and fiery spread of misinformation. While I don’t blame anybody for sticking with one of the other lids for your medal (I really hope they don’t all have their own individual medals… do they?), I also want to help set the record straight. There is not, by any measure that I’ve ascertained, at least, an “ongoing evacuation order” with an 18-mile safety radius. If I’ve gotten anything wrong here, do let me know.

But I’m 99.9% positive you won’t die for a Chansey. (A good journalist always leaves a tiny bit of room open, just in case.)