SENDAI -- Only 13 percent of applications for recognizing deaths as caused indirectly by the Great East Japan Earthquake have been approved amid a lack of experts and an absence of unified standards.
SENDAI -- Only 13 percent of applications for recognizing deaths as caused indirectly by the Great East Japan Earthquake have been approved amid a lack of experts and an absence of unified standards.
According to an Asahi Shimbun survey, 163 of the 1,291 applications have been approved as "disaster-related deaths," such as fatal illnesses during evacuation, in Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures.
Bereaved families of victims of a natural disaster, including those whose deaths were recognized as related to the disaster, are entitled to condolence money. If the victim was the family's breadwinner, 5 million yen ($65,000) is provided.
In 12 cases, the applications have been rejected or withdrawn. The remaining applications are apparently still being processed or waiting for screening.
Municipalities usually determine whether deaths are related to a disaster by setting up a screening panel of experts, such as doctors and lawyers, because there are no unified standards.
But only eight of the 53 cities, towns and villages where people died or went missing after the March 11 disaster have created screening panels on their own.
An official of the Tome city government in Miyagi Prefecture said it is tough to secure knowledgeable doctors and lawyers, while an Ofunato city government official in Iwate Prefecture said the city is finding it difficult to set up a panel on its own.
The Miyagi and Iwate prefectural governments plan to establish screening panels to handle applications on behalf of the municipalities. Prefectural officials said they hope to improve the fairness in the recognition process and reduce the administrative burden of municipalities.
The Miyagi prefectural assembly is expected to vote for a related ordinance on Oct. 18, while the Iwate prefectural assembly will pass a similar ordinance as early as Oct. 21.
At least 10 municipalities in Miyagi Prefecture and seven in Iwate Prefecture are expected to ask prefectural screening panels to handle applications submitted to them.
The Fukushima prefectural government has no plans to set up its own screening panel on grounds that it has not received any request from municipalities.
However, some towns and villages near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant set up a joint screening panel in September to speed up the recognition process.
A welfare ministry official said it is best for municipal governments, which have the closest knowledge about the deaths, to make judgments individually, saying the recognition process will lose flexibility if unified standards are used.
(This article was written by Yasusaburo Nakamura and Nobuyoshi Nakamura.)