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2015/02/22
Okada visits Fukushima, holds discussions with NPOs, social entrepreneurs and students
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On February 22, DPJ President Katsuya Okada talked with NGO representatives, social entrepreneurs, and high school and university students engaged in volunteer activities at a Fukushima city venue. The discussion focused on efforts being made to reconstruct Fukushima prefecture following the Great East Japan Earthquake and the problems relating to such efforts.
Following this, Okada commented to reporters on the discussion, saying, “I was able to hear about the situation faced by people working hard in various fields, and it was clear to me that there has been progress in some areas and not in others.”
The concentrated reconstruction period is scheduled to end in fiscal 2015, but voices within Fukushima prefecture have been calling for an extension, as well as the guarantee of sources of revenue for a further number of years. Asked for his opinion on this, Okada expressed his intention of calling on the government to extend the reconstruction period, saying, “I am aware that the DPJ prefectural headquarters here in Fukushima has decided to call for an extension. At party headquarters we also basically share that opinion.”
Okada also commented on the Abe administration’s stance on disaster reconstruction, stating that the DPJ, when in power “gained the cooperation of the LDP and other opposition parties when moving forward with reconstruction, in the belief that such efforts should be non-partisan. However, the Abe administration show no sign of calling for the cooperation of the opposition parties. They triumphantly announce figures as proof of their success of their efforts, but in fact these are nothing to boast about.” He criticized the government for “lacking the sentiment that ruling and opposition parties should work together to proceed with reconstruction” and added, “The most important thing is to move forward with reconstruction. I would like the Abe administration to utilize the strength of the opposition parties and to proceed more humbly with the recovery effort.”
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