is a village located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an actual population of 1,408, and a population density of 6.1 persons per km². The registered population per village government records was 5,946 registered residents in 1807 households as of September 30, 2017. The total area the village is . Geography Iitate is located in the Abukuma Plateau of northeastern Fukushima at a mean altitude of 500 meters. It is about northwest of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Surrounding municipalities Fukushima Prefecture Date Sōma Minamisōma Namie Kawamata Climate Iitate has a humid climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa). The average annual temperature in Iitate is 10.2 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1359 mm with September as the wettest month.The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 22.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.2 °C. Demographics Per Japanese census data, the population of Iitate peaked in the mid-1950s and has been decline since. History The area of present-day Iitate was part of Mutsu Province. During the Edo period, the area was part of the holdings of Sōma Domain. After the Meiji restoration, on April 1, 1889, the villages of Iiso, Osu and Niitate were created within Sōma District, Fukushima with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. On April 1, 1942, Osu and Niitate merged to form the village of Odate, which then merged with Iiso on September 30, 1956 to form Iitate. In September 2010, Iitate was designated one of The Most Beautiful Villages in Japan. 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Iitate suffered from moderate damage from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, and was located outside the nominal radiation exclusion zone of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. However, as a result of wind patterns following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, on 30 March 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that its operational criteria for evacuation were exceeded in Iitate, despite the village being outside the existing radiation exclusion zone around the plant. As a result, the entire population of the village was evacuated by government order on 22 April 2011. Some displaced children from the village were shunned after relocating for fear of contamination. In early June about 1,500 residents remained. By August, only about 120 residents, mostly elderly, remained. In 2012, local government obtained responses from a survey from some 1,743 former residents began experiencing growing frustration and instability due to the