Kan to visit quake-hit area Mon., near Fukushima nuke plant+

TOKYO, March 20 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Naoto Kan will visit an area about 20 kilometers away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Monday, government officials said Sunday.
Kan will leave Tokyo by helicopter early in the morning and also visit Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture to listen to people who have been affected by a calamitous earthquake and tsunami that hit the country's northeastern region on March 11, the officials said.
The government has set an exclusion zone covering areas within a 20-km radius of the nuclear plant and has urged people within 20 to 30 km to stay indoors.
The area he will visit near the plant is called the ''J Village,'' a soccer training center composed of 11 fields now used by firefighters and others responsible for containing the emergency situation at the plant, which faces overheating of its reactors and radiation leaks.
It is his second trip to the region this month. A day after the 9.0 magnitude quake and ensuing tsunami devastated the country's northeast coast, Kan inspected the nuclear plant and saw other affected areas from air.
Since then, the crisis facing the power station has greatly escalated.
Kan is scheduled to return to the premier's office early in the afternoon, the officials said.