Japan Press Weekly

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2016 April 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

JCP lawmakers to gov’t: direct utmost efforts to disaster relief

“We, politicians, should now devote ourselves to helping quake victims who are enduring suffering and the consequences of serious damage.” Japanese Communist Party lawmakers on April 18 at a meeting of the Lower House Special Committee on the TPP pressed state institutions to take all possible measures in the wake of the major earthquakes that hit Kumamoto and Oita.

Before the start of the meeting, the JCP requested that TPP deliberations be postponed and that both ruling and opposition parties together discuss countermeasures against the seismic disaster. However, as the ruling force refused to do so, the JCP representatives took up the issue of governmental support for the affected residents during the TPP committee session.

JCP Kasai Akira proposed securing water, food, and electricity to support a minimum level of living at evacuation shelters as well as introducing emergency housing measures such as the implementation of urgent safety checks on the quake-hit residential areas and houses.

He demanded that the government order a halt to operations at the Sendai nuclear power plant or at least call upon experts to examine whether the continued operations at the plant pose a risk.

JCP Hatayama Kazuya demanded emergency measures to help farmers restore their livelihoods and to deliver healthcare to evacuees without health insurance cards.