関西広域連合の「カウンターパート方式」の支援とは

政策シンクタンク ＰＨＰ総研

研究員：金坂 成通

　東日本大震災の被災地復興で、関西の2府5県から構成される関西広域連合が「カウンターパート方式」で、被災地に的確な支援を展開しています。その仕組みをみてみましょう。

　関西広域連合は、府県域を越える防災や医療、産業振興などの広域行政課題に対応するために2010年12月に設立された特別地方公共団体です。

　震災2日後の3月１3日、関西広域連合は「東北地方太平洋沖地震支援対策にかかる関西広域連合からの緊急声明」を発表し、被災地支援に取り組んでいます。主な支援内容は警察・消防・医療の派遣、支援物資等の送付、応援要員の派遣、避難者の受け入れですが、それらを「カウンターパート方式」によって行うことを決めました。それは特に被害が大きかった岩手、宮城、福島の3県に対し、それぞれ担当する府県を割り当てるものです。岩手県を大阪府と和歌山県が、宮城県を兵庫県と鳥取県と徳島県が、福島県を滋賀県と京都府が支援し、重複を避け成果をあげています。

01/10 Disaster-experienced Niigata throws lifeline for Fukushima evacuees

2011/10/01

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Wataru Suenaga and Aoi Suenaga, son and daughter of Masayoshi Suenaga, live together with Mariko Suenaga, their mother, in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture. (Toshiyuki Matsumoto)

Thousands of residents whose lives were shattered by the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant say their flight was made much easier thanks to the efficient work of government officials. Officials in Niigata Prefecture, that is.

For central government officials, those forced to evacuate their homes in Fukushima Prefecture have a quite different opinion.

Niigata Prefecture stepped up to the challenge when throngs of residents fled from the Fukushima power plant in the early stages of the crisis, housing thousands of evacuees despite the chaotic situation.

The prefecture's recent experience in dealing with two huge earthquakes proved invaluable.

On March 15, four days after the March 11 disaster, a traffic jam more than 10 kilometers long formed on Route 49 near the border between Fukushima and Niigata prefectures. The 241-km road connects Niigata city and Iwaki, the largest city in the southern coastal area of Fukushima Prefecture.

Katsumi Tsuboi, a 46-year-old resident of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, and his family were on the congested road on their way to Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, part of a "convoy" of 18 relatives in four cars heading out of Fukushima Prefecture.

Tsuboi's house is only 3.5 km from the Fukushima plant. He told his wife: "This is it. We'll never be able to return home."

Their biggest concern was the effects of radiation exposure on their children. "Let's get out of here and live as far from the plant as we can," Tsuboi told his family.

Tsuboi recalls the traffic becoming heavier as they neared Niigata Prefecture. Seeing most of the vehicles carrying Iwaki or Fukushima license plates, he thought, "Everyone is leaving."

Tsuboi crossed the border at 6:30 p.m. on March 15 and arrived in Kashiwazaki four-and-a-half hours later.

"When we crossed the border, the rain turned into snow, making me feel we were now in Niigata Prefecture," Tsuboi said.

The previous afternoon, the Niigata prefectural government became aware of the exodus of evacuees on Route 49. All telephones at the government's disaster control headquarters began ringing, many from drivers seeking hotels and other accommodations in the prefecture.

The prefectural government added four personnel to its 10-member team handling evacuees. The team prepared sites where the evacuees could rest, consult with officials or even be checked for radiation exposure.

Team members also asked municipal governments to establish evacuation centers.

On March 16, Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida watched Minami-Soma Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai plea for help on TV.

"We have no relief supplies or information on the situation (at the Fukushima plant). All routes from Minami-Soma city have been cut off," Sakurai said.

The mayor's words reminded Izumida of Yamakoshi village, which was in a similar situation in the aftermath of the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake seven years ago.

Ten minutes after the TV program ended, Izumida called Sakurai, although they had never met.

"Since Niigata Prefecture experienced the Chuetsu Earthquake and the Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake, we have a good sense of what the situation is like. We will be immediately prepared to accept a large number of people from Fukushima Prefecture," Izumida told Sakurai.

The Niigata prefectural government had already started asking municipal governments to set up evacuation centers. Within one day, 10 of the 30 municipalities in the prefecture and the prefectural government were ready to receive about 3,000 evacuees.

On March 18, 26 municipalities opened 64 evacuation centers. The next day, the prefecture accepted 10,574 evacuees.

Teruhiko Matsuoka, vice manager of the prefectural government's residents' life and environment division, stressed the importance of lessons learned from the two earthquakes in Niigata Prefecture.

"Every municipality can open evacuation centers in two hours," said Matsuoka, who led the evacuation response team at the disaster control headquarters until the end of March.

Late on March 16, the Minami-Soma government sent more than 200 evacuees in six buses to Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture.

Sakurai criticized the system that forced municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture to find evacuation sites on their own if given evacuation orders by the central government.

"The central government is so irresponsible for the evacuation orders it issues," the mayor said. "It should at least specify where to evacuate to."

Sakurai said, "(One phone call from Niigata) was our real savior, considering we were in an extremely chaotic situation."

In May, Akira Shishido, a 76-year-old evacuee from Minami-Soma who temporarily stayed in a gymnasium in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, visited an earthquake rebuilding museum in an area that used to be Yamakoshi. The village was incorporated into Nagaoka city in 2005.

When the 2004 earthquake hit the prefecture, all Yamakoshi villagers left the town.

Photographs exhibited at the museum showed houses buried under sand and mud in the Kogomo area. As Shishido read a statement at the entrance of the museum, tears welled in his eyes.

"Cry as much as you want. Then smile," the statement read. "There is a way you can open up brighter future. I was just like you. Everyone is waiting for your smile." That was words from a woman in the village.

Shortly after the Chuetsu Earthquake, the slogan "Let's return to Yamakoshi!" spread in the area.

"With the slogan in place, local residents managed to come through the challenging times as evacuees," said Tamio Mori, mayor of Nagaoka, who serves as acting chairman of a discussion group of the government reconstruction panel.

"It is important for the central government to set goals (on evacuation plans) right away. Otherwise more people will lose motivation (to return home) and will feel isolated," Mori said.

Haruji Matsui, the head of the area's community, invited Shishido and other evacuees from Minami-Soma to participate in rice planting.

"I thought it may help them relax and get to feel a little better," Matsui said.

Even after Shishido retuned to Minami-Soma at the end of May, Shishido still keeps in touch with Matsui by calling once a week. In early August, Shishido grumbled to Matsui, "I was going to fight hard to rebuild my hometown, but I have hardly seen any children here, and most stores remain closed. I don't know how much longer I can hang in here."

Matsui told him, "It's been only 150 days (since the May 11 disaster). It took us seven years to get to this point (after the Chuetsu Earthquake). You will see signs of recovery if you continue working for your hometown."

About 6,500 evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture still live in public housing and rental houses in Niigata Prefecture.

(This article was written by Kohei Tomida and Seiji Kanda.)

16/09 Mountain washed away by March 11 tsunami

The Yomiuri Shimbun


SENDAI--Mt. Hiyori, regarded as the nation's second-lowest mountain at 6.05 meters high, was washed away by the March 11 tsunami, it has been learned.

The tsunami washed away not only the shortest official mountain in Miyagino Ward, Sendai, but also a reed field in the Gamo wetlands where wild birds such as snipes and plovers rested. Consequently, numbers of wild birds in the area have fallen sharply since the disaster.

According to a civic group working to protect the Gamo wetlands, about 50 species of bird are usually observed at this time of year. However, only 28 species were recorded in a survey on the area they took on Sunday.

According to the Sendai municipal government and other sources, Mt. Hiyori was the second-lowest mountain in the nation, behind the 4.53-meter-high Mt. Tempo in Osaka, based on a map issued by the Geospatial Information Authority.

A Geospatial Information Authority official said the body would decide what course of action to take regarding the mountain being featured on its map after checking aerial photos and information from local governments.

The mountain, which was quite easy to walk around, was believed to have been made by local residents around 1909. It overlooked Sendai Bay and was loved by local residents as a place to relax. Some residents have expressed disappointment for having lost the mountain.

An 81-year-old man from Miyagino Ward who used to live near Mt. Hiyori said: "I've not come here for a long time and I'm so surprised to see [the mountain] is totally gone. I regret the loss of the mountain, which made for the best playground when I was a child."

(Sep. 16, 2011)

08/09 47 schools unable to rebuild after disaster

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Forty-seven schools that have been using other schools' facilities since the March 11 disaster still are undecided on where and how to rebuild their own facilities, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

The survey was conducted on 82 public primary, middle and high schools in 24 cities and towns in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures that are using buildings of nearby schools after theirs were severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

According to the survey results, 47 schools in 16 municipalities, or about 60 percent of the schools surveyed, had no plans to build temporary facilities or take other steps as of Tuesday. About 4,800 school children attend the 47 schools.

Municipalities that were struck by the March 11 tsunami are, in principle, required to relocate schools to higher ground. But they are not eligible to receive state subsidies for the cost of purchasing and preparing land for schools under the current law. Because of this, they are facing difficulty in securing relocation sites.

Education ministry officials say it is difficult to provide these schools with state subsidies for disaster restoration projects under existing law.

Calls for the prompt establishment of new legislation to address the issue may grow, observers said.

The survey found that only five of the 82 schools have committed to repair their original school facilities or relocate to new facilities as planned since before the disaster.

Another 30 schools said they had started or were planning to build temporary prefabricated facilities on other schools' grounds or athletic parks.

Under the law on government financial contribution to public schools on facility restoration from disaster damage, the government bears two-thirds of restoration costs when school facilities have been destroyed or severely damaged. But the law stipulates this applies to cases in which school facilities would be rebuilt at their original locations. The law provides no stipulation for cases in which school facilities need to be relocated.

Students using other schools' facilities have been facing various inconveniences, but municipal governments are in a quandary as there is very little public land that was not affected by the tsunami in the disaster-hit areas.

"We're giving priority to the construction of temporary housing units," said an Ishinomaki city government official in Miyagi Prefecture.

Some municipalities may consider obtaining privately owned land. But some lots not damaged by the disaster have inflated prices.

"Unless we receive state subsidies, we face enormous financial burdens," a town official of Yamadamachi, Iwate Prefecture, said, adding that the municipality has no chance to obtain private land.

An official of Minami-Sanrikucho, Miyagi Prefecture, stressed the town's dire financial situation, saying, "We absolutely lack the budget [resources] as we must restore facilities other than schools as well."

There is also a government subsidy to assist the relocation of local residents in groups from areas affected by natural disasters. However, this covers the rebuilding of housing facilities and does not cover the expenses of purchasing land or preparing it for the construction for school relocations.

An official of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which has received requests for state aid from municipal governments, said the ministry has asked the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry to include school relocations in the subsidy program for group relocations under its jurisdiction.

(Sep. 8, 2011)

02/09 Preparedness means not being surprised by disaster of any scale

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Sept. 1 is designated Disaster Prevention Day, because on that date in 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake struck, leaving more than 100,000 people dead.

To coincide with this, disaster-management drills are being conducted in various parts of the country this week. According to data collected by the government, more than 510,000 people, including ordinary citizens, are expected to participate in such drills in Tokyo and 34 other prefectures on Sept. 1 alone.

Soon half a year will have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, which left more than 20,000 people dead or missing. Yet the road to post-disaster recovery and reconstruction remains treacherous.

In Fukushima Prefecture, where accidents occurred at a nuclear power plant, the state of disaster persists.

Nowhere in Japan, a country where natural disasters occur frequently, can be kept free of catastrophes such as earthquakes, tsunami and floods. We should learn from the latest disaster and bolster our preparedness for such events through disaster-management drills on this and other occasions.

===

Learning from experience

A disaster drill to be held by the central government will be based on a scenario in which a major earthquake occurs directly beneath the capital. Priorities will include confirming the safety of cabinet members and securing the means to transport relief goods to affected municipalities.

These and other points were chosen because in the wake of the March 11 quake and tsunami, emergency communication networks were cut and the transportation of relief goods was greatly delayed.

Meanwhile, local governments, including prefectural governments, plan to conduct their own practical drills.

The Osaka city government, which in past drills has emphasized the response to a major quake occurring directly under the city, will for the first time conduct a drill for evacuating primary and middle school students to the third or higher floors of school buildings in the event of tsunami.

In Kochi Prefecture, a prefecture-wide evacuation drill will be held in preparation for a possible Nankai earthquake. A record 44,000 residents are scheduled to participate.

Disaster-management drills at nuclear power plants are held every year on a particular day--separate from Disaster Prevention Day--in cooperation with the central and local governments.

But on Thursday, Chubu Electric Power Co. is conducting an independent on-site inspection at its Hamaoka nuclear power plant to check the facility's readiness to deal with major tsunami.

===

Utilities must take action

Other electric power companies decided not to conduct independent drills on Thursday, as they did not want their drills to coincide with those of local municipalities. Yet it is only reasonable for utilities to make efforts to boost their preparedness for a major earthquake or tsunami.

In any case, it is important that they not only conduct drills, but also analyze the results and take necessary action in response.

One area needing improvement is escape routes. In the Great East Japan Earthquake, having an escape route that was familiar and accessible made the difference between life and death for many people.

Conducting drills should be a chance to learn a thing or two about lessening the damage caused by natural disasters.

We should also learn from the wisdom of our ancestors. It may not be mere coincidence that old roads and rest towns located along the coast in Miyagi Prefecture escaped major tsunami damage.

It is said that the Japanese archipelago has entered a phase of full-fledged crustal activity. In many parts of the country, earthquakes are occurring constantly. It is feared that the Tonankai, Nankai and Tokai earthquakes may occur simultaneously, or that even larger quakes could strike.

If such an event does occur, there should be no damage that could be considered "beyond the scope of all predictions."

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 1, 2011)

(Sep. 2, 2011)

10/07 「お墓に避難します」…南相馬の９３歳女性自殺

　東京電力福島第一原子力発電所事故の影響で、緊急時避難準備区域に設定された福島県南相馬市内に住む９３歳の女性が６月下旬、自宅の庭で自殺していたことが９日、女性の親戚らへの取材でわかった。

　遺書には、「足手まといになる」「お墓に避難します」との趣旨が記されていた。

　親戚らによると、女性は、息子夫婦と孫２人の５人暮らし。足が不自由だった。原発事故を受け、家族と離れ、同県相馬市の別の親戚宅に身を寄せたが、体調を崩し入院。退院後は自宅に戻った。亡くなる数日前には「今度はお墓に避難するんだ」と漏らしていたという。

　同区域では、原発の状況が悪化した場合にすぐに避難することが求められている。親戚は「事故が起きなければ、こんなことにはならなかった」と話した。

（2011年7月10日01時34分 読売新聞）

Disaster in Japan News on the biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years.

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  Japan is the second-largest trading partner at the Port of Los Angeles, second only to China, reports CNBC's Jane Wells.
• Japan's Nuclear Reactors: What's Happening Inside?
  The key to averting a nuclear disaster at the quake-stricken Fukushima power complex in Japan is ensuring the thick protective steel walls around the reactor cores remain intact.
• "Get out now": Japan nuclear crisis triggers online panic
  The Internet had one overwhelming message for the world from Japan on Tuesday -- we're terrified of a nuclear meltdown and desperate to get out.
• History Shows Rebuilding Spurs Economy
  A few years ago, a senior official at Japan’s finance ministry shocked a foreign guest by making a deliberately provocative statement. “What Japan’s economy needs is a really good earthquake,” he said. Now, tragically, his tongue-in-cheek wish has come true, the Financial Times reports.
• Analysis: Japan faces five-year road to reconstruction
  Japan will take at least five years to reconstruct its earthquake and tsunami afflicted regions as it balances the need to rebuild houses, roads and power grids with planning for disaster-proof infrastructure.
• Quake Could Pull Japan Out of Deflation: Analyst
  Having eased monetary policy in the wake of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami, the focus now turns to whether Japan will ease fiscal policy to shore up its economy. Jesper Koll, MD & Head of Japanese Equity Research at JPMorgan Securities Japan expects the government to take aggressive fiscal steps.
• Japan Quake's Financial Impact: Five Things to Watch
  While commodity and currency markets took the biggest immediate hit from Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the damage will be felt throughout the world's economy and the US.
• Is a Japanese Banking Crisis Next?
  The exposures of various insurance companies to the economic devastation of the Tsunami may be dominating the financial discussions in the tragedy's wake – but Japanese banks may be at the most risk.
• Fears of a Nuclear Meltdown 
  After a second hydrogen explosion at a Japanese nuclear plant, an analysis of nuclear power's problems in Japan as well as where the rest of the world stands when it comes to nuclear power, with CNBC's Simon Hobbs.
• BoJ Doubles Asset-Buying Pool to 10 Trillion Yen
  Japan's central bank doubled its asset buying scheme to 10 trillion yen and pumped record funds into the banking system on Monday to shore up confidence in the economy hit by a triple blow of a massive quake, a tsunami and a nuclear emergency.
• Earthquake Will Increase Japan's Debt Burden: Rating Exec 
  The economic impact from the tsumani that slammed into eastern Japan following one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, 8.9 magnitude, will be felt in the near future, Sean Egan, founder partner and president of Egan-Jones Ratings Company, told CNBC on Friday.
• France Is World's Biggest Nuclear Power Producer
  The world's biggest nuclear power is France, where 58 plants generate 75 percent of the nation's electricity.
• Rescuers Struggle to Reach Survivors
  Japanese authorities continued to struggle to respond to the aftermath of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami as thousands remained missing and nearly half a million survivors huddled in temporary shelters, the Financial Times reports.
• US Investors Poured $1 Billion Into Japan Just Before Quake
  Japan's earthquake couldn’t have come at a worse time for US investors, who poured over $1 billion into Japanese exchange-traded funds last month, second only to US energy funds.