Is the New Netflix Series 'The Days' Based on a True Story? Here's What We Know

Working at a nuclear power plant is stressful enough in itself, but factor an earthquake in and it's a recipe for a literal disaster.

Unfortunately it's the very sad reality for Yasao Yoshida (Koji Yakusho) in the Netflix miniseries The Days.

Given the apocalyptic nature of The Days, it's hard to imagine the events of the series happening in real life.

So is The Days on Netflix based on a true story? Here's everything that we know.

Tragically, the nuclear explosion that Yasao experiences in The Days is in fact based on a real life event. Per the Radio Times, the events of The Days are based on the horrific events in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan back in March 2011.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant was impacted by the Tōhoku earthquake, which triggered a catastrophic nuclear disaster. It was the strongest earthquake in Japan's history, and even triggered a tsunami.

It was the resulting waves from the tsunami that impacted the Fukushima power plant, damaging the plant's emergency generators.

Basically the damage to the emergency generators triggered an earth-shattering meltdown at the power plant, including hydrogen explosions, and dangerous radioactive contamination.

According to a World Nuclear report, 100,000 people were forced to evacuate from their homes as a result of the nuclear disaster. The data from World Nuclear notes that there weren't any reported fatalities or cases of radiation sickness from the incident.

However, while there may have not been any fatalities from the Fukushima power plant disaster, there were a horrible amount of deaths as a result of the earthquake and resulting tsunami.

Records show that all in all, there were around 19,000 fatalities as a result of the earthquake and tsunami. According to a report from the National Centers for Environmental Information, the government of Japan did acknowledge seven years after the disaster occurred that a worker at the Fukushima power plant had died as a result of radiation exposure.

The Days is a limited series on Netflix, and all in all there are eight episodes in total (and no, there won't be a second season). Each episode is nearly an hour long, and follows the events leading up the explosion and how Yasao handles recovery in the earthquake and resulting explosion aftermath.

Referring back to the report from the National Centers for Environmental Information, the entire natural disaster cost the country of Japan the equivalent of $210 billion dollars in damages.

However, the physical and emotional toll was by far the most devastating impact of the disaster, which is effectively conveyed in The Days. You can stream all eight episodes of The Days now on Netflix.