A resident removes rubble from a store that was badly damaged in the March 11 tsunami, in the city of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, on April 5. (Mainichi)
KAMAISHI, Iwate -- Store owners in this tsunami-devastated city have been left with an uncertain future as the municipal government mulls remodeling the city to boost protection against future natural disasters.
Many store owners in coastal regions of the city -- once known as a thriving manufacturer of steel -- want to quickly restart their businesses. But city officials are considering moving parts of the town during restoration work to improve the city's ability to withstand a tsunami. At the same time, the removal of rubble and construction of temporary housing has been given priority, and the restoration project appears unlikely to go ahead anytime soon, leaving store owners unsure what to do.
For the time being, those in commercial districts are continuing to clear mud and rubble.
"Everyone wants to stay," commented the 62-year-old head of a Chinese restaurant in the city. "But it will be no good for people to renovate their stores only to be asked to move them. People aren't sure if it's all right to reopen, and without an income, there will probably be many who can't endure and end up leaving the shopping district."
Kunihiro Narumi, a professor emeritus at Osaka University who participated in the rebuilding of Kobe after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, said the issue needed to be addressed quickly.
"If officials don't start quickly forming plans to restore the town, the store owners won't be able to hold out and will start leaving. The central and prefectural governments should quickly provide human resources and other support to enable the city, which is busy supporting the lives of its residents, to act quickly," he said.
At the time of the March 11 quake and tsunami, about 270 restaurants, hotels and other businesses lined the streets of a shopping district near Kamaishi Port. Many of the stores near the port were completely wiped out. Others that survived had their first floors filled with muddy water.
The Kamaishi Municipal Government has been considering moving urban and residential districts in the city to improve its ability to withstand tsunamis. But a representative of the city's disaster restoration project promotion headquarters said efforts to restore people's lives were taking priority.
"The reconstruction of people's lives, involving the removal of rubble and the building of temporary housing, takes priority, and we have not got as far as city planning," the representative said.
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