Japan government grilled by opposition lawmakers over typhoon

October 2, 2019

Tokyo--Japanese opposition lawmakers grilled the government at parliamentary meetings on Tuesday over its initial response to a recent powerful typhoon that caused a large-scale power outage in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, last month.

Kazumasa Okajima of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan criticized Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for reshuffling his cabinet on Sept. 11 as scheduled after Typhoon Faxai made landfall in the country. "Was it right to reshuffle the cabinet at the time of the disaster?" Okajima said.

Soichiro Okuno of the Democratic Party for the People accused the government of not holding any ministerial meeting on the 15th typhoon of the year.

The discussions marked the first debate since the CDPJ, DPFP and some other opposition parties formed a new group at both parliamentary chambers.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Akihiro Nishimura defended the government's initial response to the typhoon, saying all possible measures had been taken. This had nothing to do with the cabinet reshuffle, he said.

Ryota Takeda, minister for disaster management, said that government agencies worked closely together in responding to the typhoon.

He told a press conference later that the government will investigate its initial response to the typhoon and draw up a report by the end of this year.

Separately, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. <9501> President Tomoaki Kobayakawa told reporters that the company will investigate whether it acted properly in response to the typhoon.

The typhoon left as much as 930,000 households without power in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures. TEPCO plans to compile a report on the results of the investigation as early as this year.

The opposition groups have 120 lawmakers at the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber, and 61 members at the House of Councillors, the upper chamber.

The groups intend to boost their offensive against the government during an extraordinary parliamentary session set to start on Friday. Jiji Press