Downpour in Western Japan Designated as Serious Disaster

July 24, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government designated on Tuesday recent torrential rain that caused fatal floods and mudslides in western Japan, mainly the prefectures of Okayama, Hiroshima and Ehime, and other regions as a disaster with extreme severity.

The designation, which covers all areas affected by the heavy rain in May 20-July 10, will raise the proportion of local governments' reconstruction costs covered with state subsidies by 10-20 percentage points.

The move is intended to support their efforts to rebuild public works facilities, including waterways and roads, as well as schools and farmland.

An ordinance for the designation will take effect on Friday.

In addition, the central government will implement preferential measures for small companies in disaster-hit areas to support their business reconstruction. The measures will include the lowering of small business credit insurance premium rates.

"We hope the affected local communities will swiftly work on postdisaster reconstruction without financial worries," Hachiro Okonogi, minister for disaster management, told a press conference.

According to the Cabinet Office, the costs for rebuilding public works facilities damaged by the latest disaster were estimated to reach some 321 billion yen as of Wednesday, way higher than 179.9 billion yen, the standard set for serious disaster designation. The costs are expected to increase further.

Conventionally, it took several months for the central government to complete the designation procedures.

Hoping to support affected communities' prompt reconstruction efforts, the central government revised the operation of the designation system in December last year, enabling it to announce a designation plan in about a week after the start of disaster damage investigation at the earliest.

On July 15, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled a plan to give the serious disaster designation to the record rain, the first such move made after the revision. He later clarified that the designation will be made on Tuesday.

Previously, Abe's government designated the torrential rain that hit the northern part of the Kyushu southwestern region, including the prefectures of Fukuoka and Oita, in July 2017 as a disaster of extreme severity. Jiji Press