January 29, 2016
Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki on January 28 addressed an interpellation at a plenary session of the House of Councilors, pushing the government to carry out its responsibility to provide decent housing to survivors of massive disasters.
This year marks the fifth year following the Great East Japan Disaster and the 21st year since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
Yamashita pointed to the fact that in accordance with national government policy, local authorities in Hyogo Prefecture have been putting pressure on victims of the Hanshin Earthquake who are living in public housing units to move to other places. He argued that if those sufferers are evicted from their homes, it will undermine local communities and consequently hamper the reconstruction of the stricken areas.
The JCP lawmaker pointed out that a labor shortage is one of the main causes of the delay in business reconstruction in the northeastern prefectures affected by the 2011 disaster. Noting that housing supply is essential to solve the labor shortage, he urged the government to raise the upper limit on public subsidies for a disaster-stricken family from the current three million yen to five million yen as well as to offer rent subsidies to the survivors moving from temporary shelters to rental housing units.
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo said in reply that to increase the government grants, it is necessary to look to a balance with other subsidy programs and the requirements of national finances.
Yamashita also criticized Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, for trying to unilaterally stop paying compensation to victims of the nuclear meltdown five years ago. He went on to emphasize that it is absolutely unacceptable for the Abe administration to put idled nuclear reactors back online in defiance of local public opposition.
In response, PM Abe again expressed his intent to restart atomic reactors which pass the screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
This year marks the fifth year following the Great East Japan Disaster and the 21st year since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
Yamashita pointed to the fact that in accordance with national government policy, local authorities in Hyogo Prefecture have been putting pressure on victims of the Hanshin Earthquake who are living in public housing units to move to other places. He argued that if those sufferers are evicted from their homes, it will undermine local communities and consequently hamper the reconstruction of the stricken areas.
The JCP lawmaker pointed out that a labor shortage is one of the main causes of the delay in business reconstruction in the northeastern prefectures affected by the 2011 disaster. Noting that housing supply is essential to solve the labor shortage, he urged the government to raise the upper limit on public subsidies for a disaster-stricken family from the current three million yen to five million yen as well as to offer rent subsidies to the survivors moving from temporary shelters to rental housing units.
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo said in reply that to increase the government grants, it is necessary to look to a balance with other subsidy programs and the requirements of national finances.
Yamashita also criticized Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, for trying to unilaterally stop paying compensation to victims of the nuclear meltdown five years ago. He went on to emphasize that it is absolutely unacceptable for the Abe administration to put idled nuclear reactors back online in defiance of local public opposition.
In response, PM Abe again expressed his intent to restart atomic reactors which pass the screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
