Japan Press Weekly

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2008 August 27 - September 2 [TOKYO]

JCP criticizes Tokyo governor for giving military role to play in annual disaster drill

On August 26, the Japanese Communist Party in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly urged Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro to cancel a U.S. warship’s participation as well as the deployment of Self-Defense Forces in the annual disaster drill on August 31 to prepare for a powerful earthquake hitting Tokyo’s western suburbs.

The JCP criticized the major presence of military forces that include 700 U.S. troops, the largest group from outside in addition to 550 members of the Maritime, Ground, and Air Self- Defense Forces. In contrast, the number of personnel participating from the fire department and the police department will decrease to respectively one third and one half of last year’s number.

The JCP said all that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government should do is to have municipalities, residents, and fire and police departments prepare for rescue and fire-fighting procedures in the event of a major earthquake.

However, the Tokyo governor is intent on increasing the presence of U.S. forces as well as the SDF jointly conducting military exercises that have nothing to do with disaster prevention.

The JCP urged the Metropolitan Government to change the plan to enable municipalities, fire departments, and residential associations to be the main players and to conduct a disaster drill throughout the metropolitan area which includes joint drills with cooperation between the Metropolitan Government, municipalities, and surrounding cities in order to prepare for possible inland earthquakes in the metropolitan area.