On March 11, the DPJ established a disaster response headquarters, headed by Secretary General Katsuya Okada, to coordinate the party’s response to the Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake. The disaster response headquarters has already held five meetings since it was established and Diet members and staff in the Office of the Secretary General have established round the clock operations for information-gathering and receiving requests for assistance. An operations room for coordinating volunteer response to the disaster will also be established. At a meeting of the headquarters held on March 12, assembled members received reports regarding (1) the situation in the areas afflicted by the disaster and the government’s response to the disaster, (2) communications of messages received by the party disaster response headquarters and the Office of the Secretary General regarding the situation in the afflicted areas and requests for emergency response to the government’s disaster response headquarters (currently 500 such messages and requests have been received by the Office of the Secretary General), and (3) report from the headquarters chair regarding the future activities of the headquarters. The headquarters also resolved to “make the utmost effort toward saving human lives.”