The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a report released Friday, urged Japan to take a more focused and realistic approach to dealing with radioactive contamination in areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, amid signs the Japanese government is becoming increasingly overwhelmed by public demands for decontamination.

"They are encouraged to avoid over-conservatism which could not effectively contribute to the reduction of exposure doses," said the report produced by a 12-man team of experts dispatched by the IAEA. The mission visited various decontamination projects undertaken by the government and local authorities over the past nine days.

Last month, the Japanese environment ministry released an estimate that more than 2,400 square kilometers of land would have to be decontaminated to achieve an annual radiation exposure limit of 5 millisieverts. The government estimates this would cost more than Y1 trillion. The majority of the area is sparsely populated woodland.

The ministry is even under pressure to bring down the annual exposure limit to 1 millisievert, a move that would further increase the amount of decontamination work needing government funding.

But the report noted that a lack of available disposal sites for radioactive waste will "unduly limit and hamper successful remediation activities, thus potentially jeopardizing public health and safety." The IAEA mission urged Japan to set more realistic goals and adopt decontamination methods that are easier to implement, such as burying contaminated top soil underground rather than removing it altogether.

"We found there is room to optimize the process (of decontamination) in some areas, such as forests," said Juan Carlos Lentijo, team leader and general director for radiation protection at Spain 's nuclear regulatory authority, in a press conference.

"It is very important that the strategy should be optimized from the view point of avoiding being overly cautious. It is important to balance the benefit you obtain with the burden you have to assume," Lentijo said.

Not only financial costs should be considered, but also the time needed, the waste created, and the exposure to workers, he stressed.

The report also called for a greater involvement of stakeholders, such as local authorities and communities, given the enormity of the challenge.

This is the IAEA's second fact-finding mission looking into the aftermath of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant in March.

Decontamination is an urgent task for Japan , as its food exports are continuing to suffer a serious safety image problem overseas. Japanese trade and industry minister Yukio Edano was in China on Friday to ask the country to buy Japanese fishery and farm products. Exports of these items to China , one of Japan 's main markets, were down more than 30% from the previous year in August.
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