Japan Adopts 3-Year Program to Become More Disaster-Resilient

December 14, 2018

Tokyo--The Japanese government adopted Friday a three-year, 7-trillion-yen intensive program to make infrastructure across the country more resilient in the event of natural disasters.

The fiscal 2018-2020 program, adopted at a meeting of relevant cabinet ministers, features 160 projects, including raising the levels of levees for some 120 rivers to prevent flooding.

Of the total cost, the government plans to shoulder around 3.5 trillion yen.

The program was drawn up in the wake of a series of major natural disasters this year, including torrential rain that mainly hit western Japan in July and a powerful earthquake that struck the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido in September.

"It is an urgent issue for Japan to boost efforts for strengthening measures against natural disasters and making the country more resilient to them," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the meeting, adding that the government needs to address the issue promptly.

Based on lessons from a violent typhoon that caused the temporary closure of Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, in September due to flooding, the government will take measures to protect underground power equipment at seven airports, including Kansai airport.

The government will provide subsidies to help 125 medical institutions across the country, including those designated as base hospitals for disasters, to install emergency power generators to prepare for possible massive blackouts.

The government plans to earmark necessary funds for the program in a fiscal 2018 second supplementary budget and full budgets for fiscal 2019-2020.

It also aims to utilize its fiscal loan and investment program as well as private-sector funds to implement measures in the program.

Also on Friday, the cabinet adopted an update to the government's fundamental plan for national resilience that sets a basic policy for promoting measures against disasters over the next five years.

The updated plan puts more emphasis on ensuring energy supply than the previous plan adopted in 2014. Jiji Press