The Cabinet Office plans to survey victims of major earthquakes and other disasters, including those who lost family members or suffered disabilities, to help draft measures to better care for their emotional needs.
Government officials said Monday that the survey, which will be the first of its kind, is to be conducted in fiscal 2011 starting in April and will target the next of kin of people who died, and the children of people who died in such earthquakes as the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake, as well as single elderly people and those who became disabled because of the incidents.
The government's support for disaster victims has so far focused primarily on repairing housing and other infrastructure.
In March, Hiroshi Nakai, then minister in charge of disaster management, said in the Diet that the government plans to step up efforts to care for the mental health of disaster victims because current measures are insufficient.
The government pays up to ¥2.5 million to people who are stricken by disabilities from a disaster, but that assistance is limited to those who with "serious" problems, such leg amputation.
In the Hanshin earthquake, 10,683 people suffered severe injuries, but only 64 of them received the government relief, according to the government.