Efforts for Disaster Recovery

 While the Self-defense Force, the fire department and the police continue the efforts for rescue, death toll of Noto Peninsula Earthquake exceeded one hundred on Saturday. Roads are broken by the quakes, and landslides also block transports to the devastated area in the peninsula. Supposing the region needs long-time support, the government of Japan, led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, is preparing for securing fiscal resource.

According to the release of Ishikawa Prefectural Government as of the afternoon of January 6th, the deaths in the earthquake marked 110 in Ishikawa and 516 people are injured. 210 are still not confirmed whether they are alive or not. Broken houses are countless. Deaths are mainly confirmed in the cities of Wajima and Suzu. A major fire occurred in Wajima and Suzu is close to the seismic center.

 

A series of earthquakes caused landslides everywhere in the peninsula, covering the roads with earth and trees. The trucks transporting foods or fuels are blocked by those landslides, or and a lot of local communities are isolated without electricity and water supply. The national and local governments continue their efforts to open the roads and try to reach those area from the sea.

 

Kishida has been holding press conference every day. Keeping communication with the governor of Ishikawa, or mayor of Wajima and Suzu, Kishida insisted on “pushing support” to the devastated area. “Pushing support” generally means sending necessary support, including food, water, fuel and anything the people want, without waiting for the request from the sufferers. Although the reliefs have arrived at the base in Ishikawa, there is a situation that they cannot be distributed to the cities and towns.

 

The government began to think about money. Considering the lessons of Northeast Japan Great Earthquake in 2011 or Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016, the government of Japan anticipates that the effort of recovery and reconstruction will take a long time. Kishida announced that he would make a cabinet decision to accumulate the reserve in national budget on January 9th. Kishida held a meeting with five party leaders in Diet on Friday, asking cooperation in his effort to help the victims.

 

Kishida is going to spend ¥460 billion of reserve in FY 2023 budget, and the government has accumulated ¥500 billion in the draft of FY 2024 budget. Kishida explained about his idea to the party leaders and demanded early approval on the draft of FY 2024 budget in the coming session of the Diet. Kishida is also hoping to add some amount of reserve in FY 2024.

 

As designed for dealing with urgent needs, the reserve does not require the approval of Diet on what purpose it would be used. There have been criticisms on this discretionary use of budget by the government. Kishida administration is accountable for disclosing how the supports will work for helping the hardships in devastated area of Noto Peninsula and other regions.

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