Editorial: Japan's disaster responses can no longer be left to municipalities alone
Disasters that claim many lives are occurring one after another across Japan, and threats such as a megaquake are also drawing closer. At the same tim
The Mainichi editorial highlights the urgent need for Japan's disaster response systems to evolve beyond solely relying on municipal governments. The article cites the Kumamoto earthquake in July, which exposed significant challenges in transporting relief supplies, particularly the "last mile" problem. Despite the national government and companies delivering large quantities of supplies, the final step of distributing them to evacuation centers stalled due to a shortage of trucks and other issues.
This shortage left around 3,000 people still sheltering at evacuation centers for eight days after the disaster. The editorial also points out that local governments, while skilled in building and maintaining infrastructure, lack the accumulated knowledge and resources to handle the unfamiliar tasks that arise during a major disaster, such as procuring supplies and managing evacuation centers.
Furthermore, the growing threat of natural disasters, with over 100 incidents under the Disaster Relief Act in the past 15 years, and the declining number of municipal employees due to population decline and mergers, underscore the need for a more comprehensive and collaborative approach to disaster response in Japan.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Mainichi's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
