Japan is preparing to create a disaster management agency responsible for everything from disaster preparedness to reconstruction, learning from past disasters including the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake.
Disaster-related deaths exceeded 220 in the 2016 quake disaster in Kumamoto Prefecture and topped 240 in the Noto Peninsula temblor.
The government plans to strengthen its crisis management system in preparation for possible huge disasters, such as a Nankai Trough megathrust quake off the country's Pacific coast and a temblor directly under the Tokyo metropolitan area.
"This is something I've been advocating for more than a decade, so I have strong feelings about it," Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said of the envisaged agency.
His administration plans to increase the budget and staffing at the existing Cabinet Office division for disaster management, aiming to create a ministerial post to serve as a command for disaster response.
In November, the government opened a preparatory office and launched a meeting involving all Cabinet ministers to establish the agency within fiscal 2026, ending March 2027. The agency may be upgraded to a ministry eventually.
The agency will be modeled on the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has 10 regional offices across the country and more than 7,000 employees working on disaster management.
In contrast, the Cabinet Office's disaster management division has only some 110 employees, mainly those sent from various government agencies. Personnel transfers occur every two to three years, making it difficult to accumulate expertise.
The government will first increase the division's staff substantially in fiscal 2025. It plans to assign officials for each of the country's 47 prefectures.
Improving the environment at evacuation centers is another priority for Ishiba. In a policy speech in November, he said he will make sure that "Sphere standards," which set minimum requirements for living conditions at evacuation centers, are met throughout Japan.
Based on model cases in Italy and elsewhere, the government plans to advance the decentralized stockpiling of materials, equipment and supplies. The planned agency will be tasked to coordinate such preparations with local governments and related organizations during normal times.
Japan's disaster management systems were upgraded after the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji quake.
Learning from its failure to initially respond promptly due to the time required to gather information, the government established an emergency team consisting of bureau head-level officials from related agencies. It established a crisis management center at the prime minister's office the following year.
In 1998, the government created the post of deputy chief cabinet secretary for crisis management, putting in place the crisis management system led by the prime minister's office.
In response to the 2016 Kumamoto quake disaster, the government started the practice of sending supplies without waiting for requests from affected local governments. This style was adopted also at the time of the Noto Peninsula temblor.
Reorganization of the disaster management systems has been discussed within the government.
In 2015, however, a report by relevant state ministers concluded that the current systems were reasonable and functioning well, stating, "It is difficult to find an urgent need to create a new crisis management response agency."
How to divide the roles between the envisaged new agency and existing relevant government organizations will also be an issue. Critics say the new entity will be "redundant."
Nevertheless, many local governments, which are on the front lines of disaster response, are calling for such an agency.
"Workload increases dramatically in times of natural disaster, but local governments are running out of capacity as staff numbers are falling," said Takayoshi Iwata, specially appointed professor of disaster prevention policy at Shizuoka University.
"In Japan, where natural disasters occur frequently, a national system should be established in which dedicated staff implement policies consistently from normal times to disaster times," he said.
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