22/03 Government sets up separate task force to provide relief for disaster victims.

2011/03/22
Ryu Matsumoto (The Asahi Shimbun)

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Sunday finally established a special task force to focus on providing support to victims of the March 11 mega-earthquake and tsunami.

Until Sunday, an emergency natural disaster countermeasures headquarters had been in charge of overseeing the government's efforts to deal with the twin natural disasters.

At the same time, the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant diverted attention from what disaster victims might need.

The new task force is headed by Ryu Matsumoto, the state minister in charge of disaster management. Yoshito Sengoku, a former chief Cabinet secretary, was appointed Thursday as deputy chief Cabinet secretary in charge of victim support and he now works under Matsumoto.

The task force has set up its secretariat in an auditorium on the first floor basement of the Cabinet Office.

Among the issues to be tackled is how to procure and deliver items that victims will need in the immediate future. The task force will also have to grapple with a bigger picture: the situation at evacuation centers set up by local governments and deciding how long those people can continue living at those facilities.

In the immediate aftermath of the natural disasters, the focus was on rescuing victims and providing support while also dealing with the crisis unfolding at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Because there were two fronts that had to be dealt with simultaneously, much of the work became concentrated on Kan and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

A close associate of Kan said, "At the beginning, there was no clear division of labor. We have now separated victim relief to be handled by Matsumoto and Sengoku, while the nuclear plant problem will be dealt with by Banri Kaieda, the economy, trade and industry minister."

Immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, the emergency natural disaster countermeasures headquarters, with Kan at the helm and all his Cabinet ministers in attendance, held three meetings. Another headquarters to deal with the nuclear plant disaster also held a meeting on March 11.

In the first few days after the disaster, government insiders said Kan's attention was focused exclusively on the disaster at the Fukushima plant.

When Edano was asked if relief for disaster victims was taking a back seat to the nuclear problem, he said at a news conference, "Prime Minister Kan is making every effort to deal with both issues. This is not an issue of saying which is more important or which should be given priority."

However, even Sengoku, who is close to Edano, told associates immediately before he was appointed deputy chief Cabinet secretary that not enough was being done for disaster victims.

Although a task force has finally been set up, it faces a long list of things it must do. While gasoline and other daily necessities have begun reaching the regions hit by the disasters, the overall volume is insufficient.

There is also the issue of how to support the lives of victims while the long process of rebuilding communities devastated by the earthquake and tsunami continues.