A government panel called for putting priority on the socially vulnerable, such as the homeless, elderly and disabled, when providing shelter in evacuation centers following a major earthquake in western Japan.
The panel under the Cabinet Office said the government should do "triage" when accepting evacuees in centers by asking those whose dwellings aren't heavily damaged to return to their homes.
The panel is looking at how to plan for a devastating quake focused on the Nankai Trough, which lies in the seabed south of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu.