Japan Press Weekly

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2015 March 11 - 17 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Evacuees’ health conditions reach worst level since 2011 disaster

Four years have passed since the Great East Japan Disaster occurred. The government data show that 15,891 people were killed by the disaster and 2,584 are still missing as of March 10.

The number of those who died after the earthquake because of disaster-related illnesses or injuries is 3,139 in the three hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima. Of them, residents of Fukushima account for nearly 60%.

About 229,000 people are living in shelters across the country. The number of people living in prefabricated temporary housing totals 81,000 in the three prefectures. So far, affected municipalities have built more than 5,000 public housing units for survivors, but this amounts to less than 20% of the planned total number.

Akahata released a recent survey on the living conditions of 300 disaster victims in the three prefectures.

According to the survey, 58% of the respondents said that their health conditions are “bad” or “rather bad”. This percentage is a record high among similar surveys conducted in the past by Akahata. The poor living environments of aging temporary dwellings seem to negatively affect the health of the evacuees.

Asked about how long they will have to remain in temporary housing, 37% said “less than a year”, while almost 40% said “more than three years” or “I don’t know”.

Sasaki Toshi, 81, living in a makeshift housing unit in Iwate’s Kamaishi City, is due to move to a public apartment unit in April. She, however, has financial concerns as the authorities prohibit residents from taking out any furnishings from the temporary housing units, such as lights, fan heaters, and air conditioners. “I wonder how much it will take to buy essential household appliances. On top of that, I will have to pay rent from April. The local government should give us financial aid.”

Kimura Takeo, 67, has been living in a provisional housing unit in Miyagi’s Ishinomaki City since the massive tsunami carried away his 10-year-old house. During the prolonged life as evacuees, his mother-in-law has developed rectum cancer, his wife has suffered from stress-caused insomnia, and he himself has had to take medication for high blood pressure regularly.

“Even though our medical expenses increased, the prefecture unilaterally ended the exemption measures for disaster victims at the end of March 2013,” he said. “It’s intolerable for the Abe government to try to restart idled nuclear reactors around the nation while the Fukushima nuclear crisis has yet to be brought under control. I want Abe to resign as prime minister as soon as possible.”

Past related articles:
> Consumption tax hike heavily affects businesses in 3.11 disaster-hit region [November 12, 2014]
> 2011 disaster victims still living in difficult conditions: Akahata survey [March 11, 2014]