January 17, 2025

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko on January 16 at a press conference in the Diet building appealed for the need to further improve the law on supporting disaster victims which was enacted due in part to the tenacious efforts made by those who experienced the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.

The Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred on January 17, 1995, destroying about 640,000 homes and causing 6,434 deaths, including disaster-related deaths.

The government at that time insisted that in a country having a private property system, like Japan, individual property should be maintained based on individual responsibility, and refused to provide financial support to the quake victims for repair or rebuilding of their homes. In 1997, in response to demands of the quake survivors and civil organizations, JCP Dietmembers jointly with bipartisan lawmakers submitted a bill to establish a program to assist the reconstruction of disaster victims’ livelihoods. The bill became law in 1998.

At the press conference, Tamura pointed out that the improvement of the law on support for reconstructing livelihoods of disaster victims has been called for by local municipalities since its enactment, but the national government has turned its back on this demand. She said, “The central government’s reluctance to provide relief for disaster-affected people has not changed over the past three decades.”

Tamura noted that after the Noto Peninsula earthquake last January, people who took shelter in evacuation centers were forced to endure harsh conditions, such as lack of privacy and no nutritiously balanced warm meals. She said, “For 30 years since the Hanshin quake, the state government has failed to improve the evacuation center’s living conditions. This clearly indicates that the national government is opposed to implementing measures to support the reconstruction of disaster victims’ livelihoods.”

She stated that after the 2011 massive quake, Tasso Takuya, the governor of Iwate Prefecture which is one of the three quake-hit prefectures, stressed that the post-disaster reconstruction should be carried out in line with Article 13 of the Constitution guaranteeing the right to pursue happiness. She said, “I’ll work hard to press the national government to take this position.”