Toshino Yoshida, a 74-year-old resident of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, wants desperately to clear the tsunami debris from her home and move on with her life. But something is hampering her efforts: four vehicles sitting in her garden.
Toshino Yoshida, a 74-year-old resident of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, wants desperately to clear the tsunami debris from her home and move on with her life. But something is hampering her efforts: four vehicles sitting in her garden.
"What should I do with them?" she asked, with a heavy sigh.
Yoshida has no idea who owns the vehicles, including one that was dumped near her front door by the March 11 tsunami.
Can she remove them without telling their owners? Who will pay the costs for their disposal?
With these questions unanswered, the vehicles take up the space where she wants to dry her tatami mats drenched in the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The stress of seeing these vehicles every day is becoming unbearable.
"I can't think of any future plan even for my own home," Yoshida said. "I feel as if my heart is cracking under the weight of anxiety."
Yoshida's concern is shared by many other quake victims and local government officials as they comb the rubble for missing people or try to rebuild their lives.
Roofs, pillars, sign boards, pieces of furniture and cars heaped up in the wake of the tsunami are creating headaches for officials.
Removing the wreckage is not only a physical burden, but no matter how severe the damage, the items are still regarded as personal properties.
In addition, local authorities are legally required to keep wrecked vehicles for six months after making announcements of their removal.
On Tuesday, Tagajo city, also in the prefecture, started to remove vehicles wrecked in the tsunami. Workers using forklifts loaded them one by one on trucks amid the salty scent of seawater mixed with gasoline.
Because the workers took care not to damage the vehicles, they could remove only 22 in three hours.
City officials will try to locate their owners from the license plates to find whether they want to dispose of the vehicles.
In Tagajo alone, 5,000 vehicles are believed to have been carried away by the tsunami.
In Ishinomaki, Self-Defense Forces troops have cleared main roads of vehicle wreckage. But the city has not decided what to do about cars left elsewhere, like those in Yoshida's garden.
"How could we dispose of the large numbers of houses and vehicles swept by the tsunami?" said Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai at the prefectural headquarters to deal with the disaster on March 17. "The trouble is, even one pillar is deemed a personal property."
To address the problem, the central government is considering steps, including emergency legislation, to accelerate work to clear the rubble.
Yukihiko Akutsu, parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office now stationed in Miyagi Prefecture, told the prefectural headquarters that each local government can use its own judgment to dispose of items that clearly have no property value.
But in response to an inquiry by a prefectural official, the central government said it was still studying how to deal with the problem.
Justice Minister Satsuki Eda on Tuesday pointed to difficulties in sorting things out.
"A kimono stained with mud can still be a valuable memento," he said.
Another unanswered question is who is responsible for the disposal of the huge amount of debris.
Under the current law, municipal governments are responsible for disposing of non-industrial waste, including rubble.
But the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami destroyed town halls in Minami-Sanriku, Onagawa and elsewhere, incapacitating town governments.
The central government and other entities can foot up to 90 percent of the costs for clearing the debris, but the remaining 10 percent could be a huge burden on battered local governments.
"Reconstruction would not be possible without the central government's support. We would appreciate your help," Murai told Prime Minister Naoto Kan over the phone March 21.
The government plans to raise the ratio of costs the state will foot to 97.5 percent or higher and allow the prefectural government to take over the administrative responsibility of municipalities whose functions are lost.
Tatsuo Hirano, senior vice minister at the Cabinet Office who serves as secretary-general of the government task force to help quake-hit people, said he was compiling guidelines to flexibly apply existing laws.
"Removing the debris is a pressing task," a Cabinet minister said. "We will ask opposition parties for cooperation in applying the laws."
(This article was compiled from reports by Kenji Izawa, Kota Takeda, Masahiro Takahashi, Ryo Isshiki and Norihito Sato.)