Japan Press Weekly

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2008 June 4 - 10 [POLITICS]

Five parties to jointly submit bill to make schools quake resistant

Five parties on June 4 agreed to jointly submit to the Diet a bill to improve the quake resistance of public school buildings.

Its enactment in the current session of the Diet is likely as the bill will be sponsored jointly by the Japanese Communist, Liberal Democratic, Komei, Democratic, and Social Democratic parties.

The bill calls for an increase in the state subsidy to municipalities for repairs to improve schools’ quake resistance, to 66 percent from the present 50 percent of the cost.

An Education Ministry survey has found that out of about 130,000 elementary and junior high school buildings throughout Japan, 45,411 (34.8 percent) are not quake proof, and 8,595 (6.6 percent) have never been evaluated.

Many municipalities in a fiscal crunch are hesitant to spend several millions yen for each school to be checked, or 100 million yen for making a school quakeproof.
-Akahata, June 5, 2008