Japan Press Weekly

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2011 October 19 - 25 [TOKYO]

Outsourced tide gates remained open during 3.11 tsunami

On March 11, seawall gates in Tokyo Bay failed to shut before the earthquake-resultant tsunami reached the bay coast.

This was revealed by Japanese Communist Party member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Azegami Miwako at a meeting of the special committee on the audit on October 21.

In Tokyo Bay, the Tokyo Metropolitan government (TMG) has 46 seawall gates, whose operations are outsourced to private companies.

When the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, the metropolitan government, following the tsunami warnings by the Japan Metrological Agency, directed the companies to shut the gates. However, three gates remained open when the first tsunami arrived in Tokyo Bay.

Criticizing a TMG Port and Harbor Bureau official for saying that he does not see any problem because the low tsunami did not cause any damage, Azegami said, “If the tsunami height had been higher than predicted, areas near the unclosed three gates would have suffered extensive damage.”

She stressed that this had been warned of by a TMG workers’ union, member of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren). She said that the union raised questions about TMG’s insufficient measures against earthquakes and tsunamis when the handling of the 46 gates was first outsourced.

As reason for the delay of the closure of the three gates, Azegami referred to the fact that the port bureau could not reach the companies because phone lines were down and the companies’ staff were stuck in heavy traffic while trying to reach the gates.

The bureau official promised the JCP representative to improve measures to shut the gates without delay.

In response to an Akahata inquiry later, the bureau official said, “We have provided satellite telephones to the companies commissioned to handle the gates, and increased the amount of money paid to them in their contracts so they can rent houses near the seawall gates in order to have their staff live there and reach the gates within minutes.”

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In Tokyo’s neighboring prefecture of Chiba, the disaster-resultant tsunami caused extensive damages, including flooded roads, because the closure of seawall gates was delayed. Like Tokyo, the handling of the gates was also outsourced to private companies. A prefectural government official said, “We will take measures to assign prefectural government staff to close the gate in the event of an emergency.”