More antidisaster measures needed: Suga

October 26, 2019

Higashimatsuyama, Saitama Pref.--Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed the government's intention to implement additional disaster management initiatives in light of recent natural disasters, during a visit on Saturday to areas affected by floods following Typhoon Hagibis.

Suga visited Kawagoe and Higashimatsuyama in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, and inspected damages including breached levees.

After the inspection, Suga told reporters that new disaster management measures are necessary in addition to the three-year emergency measures adopted by the cabinet in December last year.

"We want to create additional arrangements to deal with disasters," he said.

The emergency measures, slated to be implemented from 2018 to 2020, come with some 7 trillion yen in funding for projects related to disaster management. However, the recent spate of disasters, including the 19th typhoon of the season, prompted both ruling and opposition parties to call for boosts to the initiative such as extensions to the time limit.

During his trip to Kawagoe, the chief cabinet secretary visited breached levees along the Oppe River and the Kawagoe Kings Garden special-care nursing home for the elderly, in which more than 100 people were stranded due to flooding caused by the typhoon.

He also visited a residential district affected by flood damages in Higashimatsuyama and gave words of encouragement to Self-Defense Force personnel working to remove disaster-related waste. Jiji Press