Japan Press Weekly

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2014 August 27 - September 2 [POLITICS]

JCP Hiroshima has called for stronger measures to prevent mudslides

As a week has passed since the landslide disaster in Hiroshima City, the death toll is still mounting. Japanese Communist Party members in Hiroshima Prefecture have early on pointed out the danger of disasters of this kind and repeatedly urged the prefecture to implement effective countermeasures.

Before dawn on August 20, torrential downpours caused a massive landslide in the northern area of Hiroshima City. As of August 27, 70 people were confirmed dead and 18 are still unaccounted for.

On August 19, the day before the disaster, JCP member of the Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly Tsuji Tsuneo argued that the prefecture should increase the budget to prevent landslides.

In a special committee meeting at the assembly, Tsuji noted that the prefecture has 31,987 potential landslide sites, the largest number in Japan, and that about 6,000 of them have yet to be dealt with. When he asked the prefectural authorities how long it will take to complete the improvement projects at the current pace, an official said, “It would take 333 years.”

The JCP assemblyperson condemned the prefectural government in November last year for having reduced its disaster-related budget over the years: it was 14 billion yen in FY 2003; 9.9 billion yen in FY 2008; and 7.3 billion yen in FY 2013.

Tsuji said to Akahata, “Although dealing with these potential landslide sites has been a pressing issue, the authorities have neglected their responsibility to do so. The prefecture should promote countermeasures against natural disasters instead of spending money on non-essential large-scale public works projects.

Past related article:
> JCP working hard for victims of torrential rain in Hiroshima [August 21, 2014]