EXCLUSIVE: MOF to Prioritize Local Govts with Disaster Preparedness

October 15, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Ministry of Finance is considering a plan to intensively provide tax revenue grants to local governments that have compiled sufficient disaster response plans or hazard maps, Jiji Press has learned.

The ministry is mulling the plan following a string of serious disasters that struck the country recently, including torrential rains and subsequent large-scale landslides and flooding in western regions and a series of typhoons, informed sources said.

The MOF will present the plan at Tuesday's meeting of a subcommittee of the Fiscal System Council, which advises the finance minister, hoping to include it in a set of budget-related proposals to be worked out in late November, according to the sources. The subcommittee is for discussions on matters linked to social infrastructure budgets.

Under disaster response plans, local governments and other entities show, among other things, timings for issuing evacuation advisories to residents and suspending public transport services such as buses and trains.

For flooding, the land ministry has instructed 1,161 municipalities in the country to draw up disaster response plans by the end of March 2022. As of the end of May this year, however, only 429 municipalities, or 37 pct, had compiled such plans.

According to the government's annual white paper on disaster management, published in June, only 21 pct of 645 municipalities asked to create hazard maps for high tides have released such maps.

For flooding, 98 pct of 1,331 municipalities have published hazard maps. But it is believed that the amounts of rain are underestimated in some of the hazard maps.

At Tuesday's subcommittee meeting, the MOF is also expected to present a plan to set tolls for some national routes to generate financial resources for road maintenance and repairs, the sources said.

But the plan may draw a backlash from relevant local governments, the sources added. Jiji Press