politics

Abe pledges new 5-year plan to rebuild from 2011 disaster

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By Elaine Lies

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Five more years of chair-spinning?

22 ( +23 / -1 )

Yeah, the first 5 year plan wasn't much. Hope they can get a better handle on ALL THIS MONEY that has been pumped in. I really wish we taxpayers could get an accounting.

16 ( +17 / -1 )

We will provide all the support needed for the people in the devastated areas, who are working so hard to rebuild their lives and move ahead,” Abe said.

Once again talk is cheap. The people NEED action not words, money has piled unused because of a host of problems many related to red-tape and cronyism.

For once in your life Mr. Abe, try to learn some leadership skills!

13 ( +14 / -1 )

“We will provide all the support needed for the people in the devastated areas, who are working so hard to rebuild their lives and move ahead,” Abe said.

It's like, he JUST found out that people are still struggling there.

4....years....ago. The shame of Japan, how u ignored these people.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday vowed to draw up a new-five year plan to speed rebuilding from a massive 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster that have left thousands still homeless.

"Thousands still homeless"? Try nearly a quarter of a million people still living in temporary shelters. Japan should be ashamed that this is where things stand after four years -- We'll make another, new, five-year plan. Abe could manage to convince the IOC that they should award the Olympics to Tokyo to celebrate the recovery, but this is the best he can do for these people. Disgraceful.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Great! Now the wheels have been set in motion.

Committees will be formed to decide what further committees are needed who the members are, what their roles are and their sphere of operation. Reports will be made, written up and sent from committee to committee. Studies will be conducted and committees formed to discuss the results of those studies. Reports on these discussions will be discussed at top level. This will lead to new committees to discuss what further discussions are needed and what further studies need to be carried out.

Shouldn't take more than 10 years.

Of course, it might be said that the enormous expense in paper and committee member salaries might have been better spent actually helping the victims of the disaster, but if that had happened, several thousand civil servants would have gone without a job!

3 ( +6 / -3 )

But he told the international community that everything was under control during the Olympic bidding process. Confusing.

The government has handled the animal and human crisis appallingly. A third world first world country.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Around here they have managed to build a huge, ugly sea wall to protect some farmland. Meanwhile they only just started to rebuild a local railway line and hardly any new housing has been built. It's an organisational shambles and Abe should take responsibility.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

New 5 year plan, meeting, meeting, meeting, make a decision, fail, meeting, nomikai, meeting, olympic stadium, meeting, meeting, nomikai, 5 years later, make new 5 year plan, meeting....

all talk. Someone should really do some research into where all the money has ended up.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Complete and utter BS from the government, more ways to steal more cash and spend it on things like whaling and road construction when people need to more out of temp housing!

The government has just ignored these people, it is such a shame on Japan and will make Japan look uber stupid come 2020

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Don't get your hopes up. We are understanding that Abe is mostly hot air.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

He and the govt's only concern over the next year will be the upcoming Olympics because after all, gaijin will be watching the Olympics. His 5 year plan will probably be limited to another snappy new slogan like "がんばろう日本”

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Just shows how little the ruling hundred thousand care about the hoi polloi. In an idle moment I compared NZs response to the Christchurch earthquake (occurred about a month before Fukushima) and the Japanese response. You need to do the sums yourself for verification but as I recall the cost to re-bulld Christchurch and compensate people whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed were about 25% of NZ's GDP - Fukushima less than 1%. Christchurch is moving on - Fukushima still has people living in refugee camps. Disgusting really - and Abe claims he is bringing people out of the darkness.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

I feel so sorry for the victims that are waiting for these wombats to get their finger out and actually do something. I'd be very interested to know if their original five year plan is on schedule and if they have achieved their goals to date. They have some very strange priorities. less than 20% of the displaced Tohoku residents have had their lives restored to some sort of normality and there seems to be no urgency in restoring the livelihoods of the remaining 80%. And, the debacle in Fukushima just keeps getting worse. The thousands of tons of irradiated debri just keeps building up and there is no long term plan as to what to do with it. They only talk about temporary solutions. The photo of the black plastics bags full of irradiated debri sitting on the beach is absolutely disgusting! They have had four years to come up with solutions, but they are still running around with a box of bandaids and sweeping under the carpet. They really should be totally ashamed of themselves for the inadequacies of the way they are handling this double disaster.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Disillusioned and others; You should be ashamed of yourselves; don't forget about how the brilliant frozen wall has stopped all contaminated waste water from leaking out of the plant. It has, right? I mean the govt. said it would, so I believe the govt. when it says it "has a plan." Truly a third-world response from a "first-world" nation

2 ( +3 / -1 )

i thought 5 year plans were the preserve of old USSR and PRC..... Those didn't work that well either. The lack of action at Fukushima and in Tohoku is a national disgrace. Abe and co should be ashamed of themselves.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Where did the massive amount of donation go? I hope that the government picks up the pace of reconstruction to reinvigorate the disaster-struck area. Having seen people including children get depressed due to the sudden changes of their lifestyles, I just want the reconstruction to be done as quick as possible.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

So, five years after milking the disaster for pet projects he's finally going to plan to start living up to his promises. So, by the time the Olympics have begun, billions and billions spent on shiny new venues that help no one but the rich, some of those who were used to get the Oympics and world sympathy might have a place to live? Talk abut priorities!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

This is similar to how FEMA failed in the Katrina aftermath. The real problem is more nuclear contaminated water seeping into the coastline of Fukushima & finally the Pacific Ocean itself.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Fistful of salt in hand

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Clearly this is insane, I did some rough math, if there are 250,000 affected by this & we have spent 5trillion yen that comes to Y20,000,000 per person!!!

NOW, if instead of all the madness that's going if Japan instead did some proper analysis & figured which areas to leave be, have people move elsewhere, which areas to clean up refuse & possibly re-zone for future use etc etc

Then pay people compensation for their property/loses etc & and a decent lump sum to re-start giving options for potential re-builds near where they lived or to move elsewhere of their choosing, then all this could be in full swing by now, painful decisions I know & sympathize, but this needs to start happening.

Instead its massive paralysis by national & local govts, people with often un-realistic expectations & swarms of crooks pilfering every step of the way with no end in sight, the disaster is still FULL ON!

Common Sense people, now is the time!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

TOKYO -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday vowed to draw up a new-five year plan to speed rebuilding from a massive 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster that have left thousands still homeless.

"thousands still homeless"?

He must be counting people in public housing "homeless". I think it a strech of word to far.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

@CH3

It's a poor translation. He actually said "people without houses", which doesn't carry the same implications as "homeless".

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I hope that the government picks up the pace of reconstruction to reinvigorate the disaster-struck area

Problem is the government can not decide what course to take with the areas affected, national, prefectural, and local one's at that. Plus many of the displaced want to return to their land but the government hasn't decided on how to use the land effectively. (Very long story short there...)

He must be counting people in public housing "homeless". I think it a strech of word to far.

Public housing? Are you talking about the temporary shelters erected to house them? Hardly housing by any stretch of the word considering the rush with which they were built and were not meant to last this long. They are literally falling apart and yet folks are still living in them because they have no other place to go.

Thousands are still living in them and YES they are homeless.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

It has been four years. If whatever plan has not worked we need to be sceptical (to use a current buzz word) about ant five year plans, especially if they are concocted by Abe. Abe and LDP have shown more interest in pushing nuclear power and militarizing Japan than doing anything meaningful for Tohoku.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

YubaruMar. 11, 2015 - 01:38PM JST

They are literally falling apart and yet folks are still living in them because they have no other place to go.

What do you mean by "they have no other place to go"? They can move to where ever they want.

There are a lot of houses and apartments for rent or for sale at affordable prices.

The question is if the government should give houses to the refugees for free, thereby destroying the real estate market in Tohoku. The "temporal" housing is free of rent. It is actually skewing the rent market because a lot of people prefer living in rent-free houses to renting a house.

By the way, the money collected through the donation campaign has been all distributed to the refugees, and was way too small for giving a house for everyone.

What do you think the government should do?

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

What do you mean by "they have no other place to go"? They can move to where ever they want.

Right, they want to move back to their own land and they can not. So if I place you somewhere you don't want to be it would be fine for me to tell you to abandon and forget about the land your ancestors (in some, many cases) passed down to you and move somewhere else. Real cool huh.....

The question is if the government should give houses to the refugees for free, thereby destroying the real estate market in Tohoku. The "temporal" housing is free of rent. It is actually skewing the rent market because a lot of people prefer living in rent-free houses to renting a house

.No not in reality, many interviewed want to return to their homes, or at least be given their land back to do with as they choose, but if the government decides that those areas will never be lived in again then the government has a duty to relocate them.

They have no jobs, no immediate future, and are refugees in their own country, think of all the places in the world where refugee camps exist, basically it's the same thing, displaced by war, or natural disaster, 1st World countries do not treat their people like this.

Red tape, cronyism, special interest groups, everyone wants a piece of the pie of the money that has been set aside for THEM. Our taxes increased to pay for the reconstruction, I sure as hell want it to be used for THEM, it's the humanitarian and right thing to do.

Your way is to displace people from their homes, their families, generations of friends and relatives, all in the sake of "oh there are places to go, so go" type of attitude. I dont agree.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

YubaruMar. 11, 2015 - 05:13PM JST

but if the government decides that those areas will never be lived in again then the government has a duty to relocate them.

If you are talking about the evacuation area due to the nuclear accident, TEPCO pays the cost of re-building and relocation as compensation. http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2014/1235997_5851.html

If you are talking about the area prone to tsunami, the government does not decide that no one should live there.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Not sure I understand the distinction between "those without homes" and "homeless." Oh, if you're thinking in the literal sense of homeless, that's true. But the "temporary housing" is just that, with a slight nuance in the kanji of "pretend housing."

Also, not everybody has the money to move on, even if they wanted to. They're elderly, or they have families, or they're still paying off loans from their destroyed houses, or...or...or...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The plight of the internal refugees -- and that is what they are is heartbreaking. But I remember distinctly that the Japanese government then JDP and now LDP consistently held the view that the government was committed to restoration Fukkou and that concept has stuck.

What that stubborn insistence on restoration has meant that other options such as relocation are not really looked at seriously. Part of the reason is, of course, the desire of some people not to leave the Tohoku, where many prefectures have their own dialects and a culture that is bound to a rugged sea coast. But a goodly part of this is also single minded thinking that pre-empts local choice and creates a group think expectation that the local people must restore and rebuild.

What is needed really is clear analysis of prospects -- 20 pct of Japanese themselves will not eat food stuffs from Fukushima regardless of what food inspectors say and some places are just not economically or socially viable. The government must think in bolder terms, and not just trickle in assistance. In some cases, maybe whole communities may need to relocate, taking their butsudan with them and trying to preserve a subculture.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

elMar. 11, 2015 - 06:13PM JST

But the "temporary housing" is just that, with a slight nuance in the kanji of "pretend housing."

Westerners have a habit of saying something more than they actually know, probably due to the years of school education where debating is encouraged.

Let us see the materials released by Miyagi Prefecture. http://www.pref.miyagi.jp/uploaded/attachment/295813.pdf, http://www.pref.miyagi.jp/uploaded/attachment/295805.pdf

There are 2 types of "temporary housing." One is subsidized rental house which is nothing but ordinary rental house for which the government pays the whole rent for the refugees. The other is pre-fabricated houses.

Subsidized Rental Houses: 31,816 refugees

Pre-Fabricated Houses: 34,648 refugees

Your criticism may be directed toward the pre-fabricated houses, but does not hold true about the other half of the cases.

Pre-fabricated houses look like these.

http://www.sankyofrontier.com/unithouse/showcase/detail.php?product_id=1222&usage=11&md=se

http://www.sankyofrontier.com/images/files/showcase/1222_showcase_img5.jpg

http://www.sankyofrontier.com/unithouse/showcase/detail.php?product_id=1221&ulink=11

http://www.sankyofrontier.com/images/files/showcase/1221_showcase_img5.jpg

I do not think them that bad.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

CH3CHO...

.Pre-Fabricated Houses: 34,648 refugees

Have you ever been to Miyagi? Do you have ANY idea about what you are talking about? Those pre-fabs were built on concrete slabs, no foundations, and many are literally falling apart. Cracks in walls, mold, all sorts of problems, and let's not even begin to discuss weather in that area in winter.

34,000 plus people ....isnt that enough for you?

Oh the mods here decided to delete a post criticising your position, they must agree with you about the refugees not being in dire straights like NHK reports. Truth hurts.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

They can move to where ever they want.

With what? They've lost their jobs, homes, and in many instances cars. It's also hard to move and start over while paying rent and paying the mortgage on the house that was contaminated or washed away...their debts aren't forgiven just because there was a disaster. Free housing is certainly advantageous, but they aren't living for free.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

YubaruMar. 11, 2015 - 09:03PM JST

Those pre-fabs were built on concrete slabs, no foundations, and many are literally falling apart.

Those pre-fabricated houses can easily last ten years or more. The makers have a long history of solid products. They would not have been in the market for decades, if their products were to fall apart in less than 4 years.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Those pre-fabricated houses can easily last ten years or more. The makers have a long history of solid products. They would not have been in the market for decades, if their products were to fall apart in less than 4 years.

Cripes fight to the death and refuse to face reality. Googe this in images 仮設住宅カビなど and this on the web 仮設住宅トラブル.

You come across as bad as the WWII deniers.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Google it CH3CHO....the proof is there.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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