More than half of local governments devastated by the 2011 disaster in northeastern Japan say they will need six to 10 more years to completely rebuild their communities, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.
More than half of local governments devastated by the 2011 disaster in northeastern Japan say they will need six to 10 more years to completely rebuild their communities, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.
Although two-thirds of the 42 local leaders surveyed welcomed the anti-disaster public works projects pushed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 30 percent were negative about the measure, citing possible labor shortages and rising materials costs that have already affected the Tohoku rebuilding process.
Responses to questions about the pace of reconstruction appeared to depend on the location of the communities.
Only one leader in the disaster area around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant said there has been progress in the rebuilding effort so far. Municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture are also facing difficulties persuading evacuated residents to return to their homes.
The survey covered 42 cities, towns and villages in coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures that were hard hit by the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011.
The municipalities included 12 in Fukushima Prefecture that came under evacuation orders after the natural disasters caused the nuclear accident at the No. 1 plant.
According to the survey, 22 of the local leaders cited a time frame of six to 10 years to finish work to restore and rebuild their communities.
“It will take six to 10 more years for us to return to our village and acquire a firm footing for reconstruction,” said Masahide Matsumoto, mayor of Katsurao village in Fukushima Prefecture.
Ten leaders said the work should wind up “within three years,” while eight said “four to five years.”
Takafumi Yamauchi, mayor of Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, who gave an estimate of up to three years, said central government assistance was needed for the rebuilding efforts.
“Since the human cost of the disaster was limited in our city, the recovery work is going well,” Yamauchi said. “We want the central government to continue to back us without relaxing its hand of support.”
One official was more pessimistic, saying “11 to 15 years” would be needed to complete the recovery. One leader declined to respond to the question.
Around 66 percent of those surveyed described Abe’s initiative to enhance the nation’s preparedness for huge quakes and other natural disasters through public works as “positive” or “somewhat positive.”
“If all of the nation benefits, so does the affected region,” said Kimiaki Toda, mayor of Ofunato in Iwate Prefecture, who assessed Abe’s plan positively.
One local leader had a “negative” view of the program, while 12 others described it as “somewhat negative,” according to the survey.
One local chief did not reply.
“We are concerned that the pace of reconstruction could be slowed because of a possible shortage of labor and materials,” said Jin Sato, mayor of Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture.
Fukushima was the prefecture most positive about the central government’s public works program, with 12 of the 15 heads welcoming the projects.
The prefecture was also the most negative in terms of assessing the pace of recovery and reconstruction so far.
Overall, 22 of the 42 leaders cited progress, while 19 said there has been little progress. One official gave a different answer.
In Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, 18 of the 27 local leaders said there has been progress in the work. But in Fukushima Prefecture, 11 of the 15 chiefs said little progress is evident.
Fukushima Prefecture has had to deal with the added burden of cleaning up radioactive substances that spewed from the plant. The decontamination process has slowed reconstruction, and persistent fears of radiation have prevented residents from returning, exacerbating the delay in finalizing rebuilding plans in some areas.
The survey asked the 12 leaders of Fukushima municipalities where residents were forced to evacuate about the percentage of residents they expect will return to their homes around the No. 1 nuclear plant.
Five said 60 to 70 percent, while two said 80 to 90 percent. Four replied that they will work to bring back 100 percent.
But they noted that the return of all residents will be increasingly difficult if their evacuation is prolonged.
A survey conducted jointly by the central government’s Reconstruction Agency and the stricken municipalities found that nearly half of the people from at least one local government have no intention of returning home.
The figure was 40 percent for Tomioka, which co-hosts the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant and is within the 20-kilometer no-entry zone of the No. 1 plant.
Five of the 12 local chiefs said they expected residents to return “within five years,” while four said it will take “six to 10 years.”
The mayor of Okuma, home to the No. 1 plant, said “11 to 15 years.”
All 12 Fukushima leaders said the general public’s memory of the nuclear disaster is fading.
Kawauchi was the only municipality of the 12 in Fukushima that cited progress in the rebuilding effort, according to The Asahi Shimbun survey.
Kawauchi Mayor Yuko Endo said work was advancing faster compared with neighboring cities and towns. Perhaps the main reason was that radiation levels in Kawauchi are comparatively low despite being located within 30 km of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
In January 2012, Endo called on villagers to return home. He moved the functions of the village hall and school back to Kawauchi in spring that year.
Abe called Kawauchi a “front-runner in rebuilding.” With the help of state subsidies and other sources, companies from Tokyo and Osaka are setting up factories in the village. They are expected to provide jobs to residents who used to work in the nuclear industry or on farms.
A large convenience store chain set up an outlet in Kawauchi late last year, with the Reconstruction Agency working as an intermediary.
On Feb. 26, the village hall signed an agreement with a German company to host a large solar power plant.
Work to clean up the area surrounding about 1,200 households in the village is nearing completion, Endo said.
But the village, which had a pre-disaster population of 3,000, saw only around 1,100 residents return, including those who are dividing their lives in the village and their evacuation sites.
“We have not necessarily generated the results we wanted to see, although the foundation for rebuilding was laid out,” Endo said.
Still, the village is well ahead of other local governments, many of which have yet to even start their recovery operations.
Iitate, a village with high radiation levels northwest of the No. 1 plant, is one of the municipalities that has fallen behind.
“I cannot picture the reconstruction of our village because we have been unable to use central government subsidies and the special zone designation,” said Iitate Mayor Norio Kanno.
The central government has introduced a variety of programs to promote rebuilding. For example, subsidies for public housing, eased regulations and tax breaks are available in special zone designations in the stricken region.
Katsuya Endo, mayor of Tomioka, said it is difficult to tell if the special zone designation is generating the intended results.