It is 25 years on January 17 since the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquakes, the worst urban seismic catastrophe in the post-war era. Every time when natural disaster hits the country, the government has reviewed its policies on disaster prevention, rescue operations and recovery plans. Many, however, criticize the nation’s commitments as ‘patchy’.

WHAT WE SHOULD DO IN ORDER TO SAVE PEOPLE’S LIVES FIRST

The earthquakes occurred at 5:46 in the morning on January 17, 1995, with the epicenter located in the southern area of Hyogo Prefecture. They were measured as Magnitude 7.3 and the maximum 7 on the Japanese intensity scale. The natural disaster had been the largest after the end of World War II before the East Japan Earthquakes hit the Tohoku region in 2011. In total 6,434 people were killed and 250 thousand houses were destroyed completely or half collapsed. Another 900 people died of diseases in the make-shift houses, including influenza, after they had survived the calamity, which occupies 14% of all the victims. Additionally, over 1,100 people have died in solitary for a period of 20 years in the houses built in the restoration plan. Many tragedies happened even after the seismic disaster.

Disaster prevention measures were insufficient

Last year the Japanese archipelagoes were hit several times by record-making heavy rains and powerful winds of typhoons. In many districts across the nation people faced extraordinary damages. The government has hazard maps throughout the country, but in some areas they were proven to be ineffective as refuge centers and bases were placed officially in such dangerous zones..

As for major water purification plants, 758 plants, or 22% of all, were built in the estimated hazardous areas. Five hundred and seventy-eight of them, or 70%, leveling jobs were absent at the entrance and watertight doors were not built in. Furthermore, a discharge system was proven inadequate at some hydro-electric stations; a dam releases water into a river when the heavy rains threaten the maximum capacity.

Several hundreds tons of garbage was produced, too. But the disaster plan did not contain guidelines for a flood disaster, like a temporary garbage storage facility and initial operational arrangements. Some municipalities estimate it will take two years to process all garbage. The central government continued calling people to be alert to save a life, but some shelters in Tokyo could not accommodate all who wanted to evacuate. Seventy percent of the victims were the elderly over 60 years old.

The FEMA=Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States, which Japan has paid attention since the Hanshin earthquakes, has full-time service offices managed by the federal budget in ten regions of the country.

In Japan rescue forces counts 6,258 troops, or approximately 50,000 members (as of April, 2019). They are of the emergency and fire service support units officially registered by each municipality and they respond to a disaster. But a joint training is held once in a few years.

Increase workers in local governments!

Learning from lessons of the 2011 earthquakes, the Basic Acts for Natural Disaster Measures was amended in 2015. Until then prevention steps had been arranged on the municipality basis, and the revised law stipulates that prefectures and the state authorities should help municipalities and that simultaneously each locality makes its plans for prevention, emergency-response and recovery.

Therefore, it is workers of local governments that are in charge of tasks of prevention, evacuation, rescue and reconstruction. Currently, however, 40% of the municipal workers are employed on the irregular basis. They are not full-time public workers. That means a municipal government cannot play a right role both in routine and emergencies, which the recent disasters verified.

Consequently, an increase of workers in the municipal government is the key as a disaster prevention step.

February 4, 2020