Evacuation Plan from Southwest Islands

The Cabinet Secretariat published the evacuation plan from Sakishima Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, in case of a contingency in the region including military invasion in Taiwan. The plan assumes transportation of 120 thousand people from the islands to the mainland of Japan. The government of Japan is going to have a drill for the evacuation in FY2026.

Considering growingly severe security environment around Japan, the National Security Strategy, which was revised in 2022, describes enhancement of measures for protecting Japanese citizens. “[F]or the purpose of achieving prompt evacuation of residents, including those in the Southwest region well in advance of an armed attack, Japan will take measures such as formulating a plan for smooth evacuation as soon as possible, securing the means of transportation of the public and private sectors, developing and coordinating the use of airports, seaports, and other public infrastructures, securing various types of evacuation facilities, and working with international organizations,” says the plan.

 

The government of Japan accordingly formulated the evacuation plan for the residents of five isolated small islands; Ishigaki, Miyako, Taketomi, Yonaguni and Tarama. All of those residents, estimated as 112 thousand, and 10 thousand tourists will be transported to mainly somewhere in Kyushu Island, one of the main four islands of Japan. Seven prefectures in Kyushu and Yamaguchi Prefecture are allocated to the evacuees as the place to be transported. The Evacuation will be completed within six days.

 

While the people in the main island of Okinawa is supposed to stay in their homes or buildings in a contingency, the residents living in those five islands are designated to leave their islands, supposedly because they are geographically closet to Taiwan. The evacuees will be sent to Kyushu by ferry boat or airplane. Major cities in Kyushu, such as Fukuoka or Kitakyushu, is going to accept greater number of evacuees.

 

Each local government in Kyushu and Yamaguchi is establishing plans for accepting those evacuees. They include listing up hotels or other accommodation facilities for the evacuees to live. In case the evacuation lasts for a certain long period of time, the plans include offering schools for students and jobs for parents. The evacuation will basically be made without breaking down each community in the islands.

 

The national government and related local governments have been exercised drills of the evacuation since FY2022. In those drills, it was considered that they needed to secure enough transportation, make a manual for disabled people and establish a detailed plan to reach ports or airports.

 

However, there raised a number of questions. It is not sure that Kyushu is definitely safe, when Okinawa is in danger. It is not clear from what kind of danger the national government is protecting those islands. Residents are also worried about their property they will leave in their home island. The evacuation plan seems to be based on evacuation from natural disaster.

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