Japan to Allow People with Less Damaged Homes into Temporary Housing

July 17, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe revealed on Tuesday a plan to even allow people whose houses were not destroyed or extremely damaged in the latest sediment disasters and floods in western Japan to move into temporary housing.

"It's necessary for affected people to move from shelters to privacy-secured homes so they can start full-scale efforts to rebuild their lives," Abe told a meeting of the government's disaster response task force.

Under the current regulations based on the disaster relief law, people eligible to move into temporary housing are limited to residents of homes that were destroyed or nearly destroyed.

But the government plans to ease the eligibility rule to permit temporary housing residency for those who find it impossible to live in their homes due to damage from landslides, driftwood and other factors even if the structural damage is less severe than the current requirements, according to Abe.

A similar deregulation step was taken in the wake of a series of extremely strong earthquakes that hit hard Kumamoto Prefecture in 2016.

Abe also said that the government will dispatch an additional 1,000 Self-Defense Forces members and 70 dump trucks to speed up disaster waste disposal at the Mabi district of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture.

Meanwhile, nine cities and four towns in the neighboring prefecture of Hiroshima, which are subject to the application of the disaster relief law, started on Tuesday to accept consultations related to emergency repairs of houses that were damaged in the disaster.

Part of repair costs will be shouldered by the central government.

At least 900 houses were badly damaged in Hiroshima, according to the prefecture's disaster response headquarters.

In a related development, the Okayama prefectural government launched on Sunday a program in which it leases houses and apartments as temporary housing for Kurashiki residents whose homes were destroyed.

In the rain disaster, 214 people have so far been confirmed dead in 13 prefectures, with 16 remaining unaccounted for. Jiji Press