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On August 18, the DPJ team promoting the construction of temporary housing in the disaster-affected areas held its 10th meeting inside the Diet building. The team was briefed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour regarding the current state of temporary housing construction, the numbers of occupants, and the progress being made toward the goal of ensuring that all those who wish to live in such temporary accommodation can be housed by the Obon holiday period in mid-August, as well as hearing the ongoing issues regarding this matter.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism explained that they had managed to secure 113,000 housing units, consisting of temporary accommodation, rental accommodation and public housing, and that with regard to temporary accommodation, the necessary number of housing units would be completed in each of the three Tohoku prefectures during September. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour reported that based on the current state of occupancy of temporary housing and on points previously raised by the DPJ team, the ministry had sent various notices to local governments, particularly those in the affected areas, and had established a project team headed by Senior Vice Minister Kohei Otsuka to study living conditions in temporary accommodation, and had undertaken questionnaires and other surveys in order to enable them to discover what problems exist and to engage in an effective response.
Finally, the Chair of the DPJ team, Taizo Mikazuki announced that considering the attainment of the goals set for construction of temporary housing was now in sight, the team would be disbanded. He emphasized the need to shift to providing comprehensive livelihood support for those now living in temporary accommodation, and said that a new team would be formed to provide assistance to such individuals.
Following the end of the construction promotion team meeting, the livelihood support measures team, chaired by Tomiko Okazaki, held its first meeting, listening to briefing regarding the livelihood support currently being providing to those living in temporary housing. The team determined that they would liaise with the government’s project team, and implement a thorough assistance package having carefully established the scope of the livelihood support required and the actual needs of individuals.
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