Only about half of the budgeted 6.7 trillion yen ($83.7 billion) has been used to rebuild areas devastated by last year’s disasters, as labor shortages, unfinished paperwork and persistent confusion have bogged down the process.
Only about half of the budgeted 6.7 trillion yen ($83.7 billion) has been used to rebuild areas devastated by last year’s disasters, as labor shortages, unfinished paperwork and persistent confusion have bogged down the process.
Not even 20 percent of the money set aside for rebuilding roads, repairing schools and erecting public housing for survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami has been spent.
Even a project to bring foreign celebrities to Japan to spread the word that Japan is safe to visit is stuck with a pile of unused funds.
The Asahi Shimbun analyzed the use of the 6.7 trillion yen earmarked for reconstruction measures in two supplementary budgets last year based on government documents obtained by the newspaper and Hiroshi Kawauchi, a Lower House member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
The first supplementary budget, which was passed last May, covered measures to restore social infrastructure and maintain employment. The second supplementary budget, compiled to deal with the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, was passed in July. A third supplementary budget containing measures for full-fledged rebuilding passed in November, but that budget was not included in the analysis.
Of the 6.7 trillion yen in the two supplementary budgets, only 3.7 trillion yen, or 55 percent, has been used. However, that figure includes 1 trillion yen injected into government-affiliated financial institutions, so if that amount is subtracted, the actual ratio spent on various projects declines further.
Only 15 percent of the 1.4 trillion yen set aside for public works projects had been used as of the end of last year.
Within the overall public works projects category, 766.5 billion yen--the largest amount--was earmarked to repair the roads, levees and sewer systems damaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami. However, 29.2 billion yen, or just 3.8 percent, has been used so far.
And only about 30 percent of the 245 billion yen for rebuilding schools has been used.
The budgets for 16 project areas, including public housing for disaster victims and repairs to dams, have remained untouched.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism handles about 80 percent of the money for such public works projects. Ministry officials said local governments have been unable to complete the documents needed to request budgeted money because they lack personnel and have run into delays in completing their rebuilding plans, including moving communities to higher ground.
"Because we do not have enough government workers with an engineering background, we have not been able to draw up the large number of blueprints needed for road construction and rebuilding facilities," an official in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, said.
Delays have emerged in other projects.
For example, the supplementary budgets included 726.9 billion yen in government subsidies for damaged companies to help them keep their workers employed. However, in the three hardest hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, only 29.4 billion yen has been applied for.
"There are many examples of companies not being able to even submit applications because they do not know if they can resume business operations," an official with the labor ministry in charge of the project said.
Although 5.2 billion yen has been budgeted to store government-owned rice in the disaster areas, only 200 million yen has been used because there are not enough workers to transport the rice to the warehouses.
A Foreign Ministry project to invite foreign celebrities to Japan to publicize to the world the safety of the nation after the Fukushima nuclear accident had 400 million yen set aside in the budget. So far, only 40 million yen has been used because few celebrities have taken up the offer.
Although any money left over can be carried over into the next fiscal year, Finance Ministry officials are asking the various central government ministries to use up the funds by this autumn because if it is not used over a two-year period it will have to be returned to the national treasury.
(This article was written by Eiji Zakoda and Masahiro Yuchi.)