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On March 21, an executive meeting of the DPJ Tohoku Pacific Earthquake Response Headquarters (Chair: Secretary General Katsuya Okada) was held at party headquarters, and ongoing efforts to provide assistance to victims of the disaster were discussed.
In his opening address, Okada reported on the visits he had made to an evacuation centre on the morning of that same day, and on the joint meetings between representatives of various political parties and the government, which had started from March 18 in order to coordinate the response to the disaster. He said, “We have been receiving extremely valuable opinions from each party. If we can come to a consensus here, that can be reflected in the drafting of legislation and the supplementary budget that are to follow, so I would like us to continue to treat this as a valuable forum.”
Minister of State for Government Revitalization Koichiro Gemba, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku and Special Adviser to the Prime Minister Hirokazu Shiba attended the meeting on behalf of the government, and gave a detailed explanation of the special response headquarters, headed by Minister of State for Disaster Management Ryu Matsumoto, that had been established on March 20 in order to coordinate livelihood assistance to disaster victims.
It was also reported that the government and the electric power companies (Tokyo Electric Power Company and Tohoku Electric Power Company) had agreed on the following measures in order to limit the impact of rolling blackouts on the life of the nation. (1) Areas affected by the disaster (areas specified in accordance with the Disaster Relief Act) and airports and oil refineries essential for the transport of goods to the disaster areas will be exempt from blackouts. In addition, facilities and areas in which core functions of central government are concentrated; that are crucial from the viewpoint of national security; that are concerned with the key functions of the nation; and that are directly connected to human life and wellbeing should, if it is technically possible, be exempt from blackouts if they have no alternative sources of power such as back-up generators and mobile power units. (2) With regard to hospitals without back-up generators, Tokyo Electric Power Company will dispatch mobile power units based on information obtained from local authorities and from individual inquiries, and Tohoku Electric Power Company will if at all possible exempt hospitals that are considered to be important from the perspective of treating victims of the disaster from blackouts. With regard to patients using artificial respirators in their own homes, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will draw this issue to the attention of their supervising physicians via prefectural authorities, the Japan Medical Association, and medical equipment makers, and the electricity companies will set up call centres to deal with enquiries from doctors and patients. (3) With regard to the impact on train services, it was agreed to improve administration of substations and revision of timetables.
In addition, members of staff at local government offices in the disaster-stricken regions have themselves suffered greatly from the disaster, and as a round-the-clock full-out response continues, staff members are experiencing extreme fatigue. Consequently, in response to request from local governments in the affected areas, the government is considering dispatching employees from branches of national bodies based in the regions to local authorities, and of asking for assistance from local authorities in other areas.
With regard to liaison between volunteer organizations and the government, preparations are in progress to establish a volunteer liaison office in the Cabinet Office, and on March 22, the website “Tatsukeai Japan”, which will provide information and support for volunteers, was launched.
The DPJ side reported that 960 requests had now been made to the party disaster response headquarters, and the Secretary General of the headquarters, Deputy Secretary General Osamu Fujimura, said that there had recently been an increase in requests relating to the difficulty of obtaining petrol, the rolling blackouts, and the contamination of vegetables by radioactive materials.
Chair of the National Canvassing and Rallying Committee Shu Watanabe reported on liaisons between the party and volunteers, saying that a volunteer preparation room had already been established, and an advance team had been sent to Miyagi Prefecture. He said that from March 22, the party would strengthen logistic support by having Diet members responsible for each of the affected prefectures contact the various prefectural branches of the DPJ to assist with matching up volunteers and local needs, and dispatching volunteers.
Participants in the meeting commented that even in areas of western Japan not directly affected by the disaster, supplies of some essential items and building materials were running short, and called for the related government agencies to strengthen their monitoring and countermeasures to ensure that activities such as ‘holding back commodities’ and ‘opportunistic price hikes’ do not spiral out of control.
The party’s disaster headquarters intends to hold a general meeting open to all DPJ Diet members on March 23.
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