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On April 12, the DPJ Great East Japan Recovery and Reconstruction Study Committee held a meeting inside the Diet building, and committee members, including the Chair, Secretary General Katsuya Okada, discussed related issues for almost an hour.
During the meeting, reports were received regarding the actions being taken by each of the four study teams dealing with the implementation of special measures legislation, the revision of public expenditure, the formation of a reconstruction vision, and the drafting of a supplementary budget.
The reconstruction vision study team (Chair: Masayuki Naoshima) had visited areas affected by the disaster in Iwate Prefecture, including Rikuzentakada City and Ofunato City, on April 6 and 7, as well as holding discussions with the Governor of Iwate Prefecture Takuya Tasso. Calls to make highways in the disaster-stricken areas toll-free for six months to a year, to restrict opportunistic price hikes, to provide financial support for local financial institutions, to take measures to find employment for those who have lost their jobs due to the disaster, to prevent chain reaction bankruptcies occurring due to difficulties in collecting payments, to encourage recovery of fishing ports, and to ensure prompt distribution of donations were introduced as some of the concerns raised by the affected regions. It was also reported that Governor Tasso had pointed out the importance of restoring the administrative functions of municipal authorities prior to engaging in recovery and reconstruction, of speedily implementing a reconstruction vision as a national strategy, and of providing financial assistance to local businesses.
The special measures legislation study team (Chair: Masaharu Nakagawa) reported that after selected proposals submitted by each subsection of the DPJ Policy Research Committee had been approved by the Study Committee, the study team would work toward turning these proposals into legislation. The government is already considering the submission of various budget and tax system-related bills, such as a special exemption law relating to the total amount of subsidies to local government, in connection with the first supplementary budget. However, the proposals to be considered by the study team would not relate to the first supplementary budget, but to legal measures to be taken by the government after that.
The various budget and tax system-related measures currently being considered by the government are in addition to the various permanent legislative measures that were introduced following the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The current disaster differs from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in terms of the great damage that was caused by the tsunami, and as a result, the submission of a special exemption law applying to the Law Improvement Act.
The public expenditure revision study team (Chair: Koriki Jojima) and the supplementary budget study team (Chair: Yasuo Ichikawa) made reports based on exchanges held by Policy Research Committee Chair Koichiro Gemba with representatives of the various political parties. Gemba himself also made a related report regarding the content of the discussions. References were made to the disposal of rubbish that has collected on the sea bed, and of the question of toll-free highways in the disaster-affected areas as issues that had not been dealt with in the first supplementary budget. Regarding the matter of compensation measures for damages arising from the nuclear power accident, Gemba said that this would require a separate framework from legislation to support survivors of the disaster, but expressed the opinion that lump-sum payments would be issued as soon as possible, even if this meant that the government would have to advance the money.
The above information was reported to the media by the Secretary General of the Committee, Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi.
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