Grassroots efforts to regain normal life continues 7 years after 1995 great earthquake

January 17 marked the seventh anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, which killed 6,432 people in Kobe and many other cities in Hyogo Prefecture.

In many parts of the disaster areas, people attended meetings from January 16-17 to remember the victims and pledge to cooperate with each other in the effort to ensure that everyone can return to normal life as early as possible.

A survey by a local newspaper (Kobe Shimbun) found that 68.2 percent think that steps for rehabilitation from the biggest postwar disaster in Japan are far from what is needed. The number of those who take their lives as means of escaping from the unbearable hardships remains high.

The central government and local governments, including Hyogo Prefecture and Kobe City, have refused to compensate individual earthquake sufferers, although they have tax money to use for large public works projects, including an airport, which the people do not want or need.

Hyogo Prefecture plans to end the job program in the disaster areas next March.

Last year in the Diet, the Japanese Communist Party proposed amendments to a law to drastically increase official payments for supporting both the daily living conditions of sufferers from earthquakes and other disasters and their housing loan repayments.

Osawa Tatsumi, a JCP member of the House of Councilors from Hyogo, insists that at least 5 million yen must be paid to support the living and housing of Kobe's sufferers. This is in sharp contrast with Tottori Prefecture, where the prefectural government paid 3 million yen in compensation for building new houses to each family hit by the 2000 Western Tottori Earthquake.

In municipal housing, a total of 172 elderly people died unattended. More than half of the elderly have PTSD, and over 3,000 pupils at elementary and junior high schools need psychiatric care.

Many households are repaying housing loans: one for the house destroyed in 1995 and the other for the newly bought house. In 2000, 195 families defaulted on their loans, and 1,883 citizens filed for personal bankruptcies, and the numbers are still on the increase.

Last August, a United Nations committee advised the Japanese government to help Hyogo Prefecture to take proper care of the elderly and disabled people and support those who are repaying housing loans despite the hardship.

The U.N. recommendation is encouraging the earthquake sufferers, but the Japanese government maintains that it is based on a misunderstanding of facts. Criticizing this, Fujiki Hiroko, House of Representatives member from the JCP, urged the government to implement the recommendation as early as possible.

The Prefectural Citizens Council for Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation of Hyogo and other citizens groups on January 17 held meetings to mourn victims, a "summit meeting of disaster-hit areas," and a symposium. They expressed their determination to overcome the disaster and to make strenuous efforts for the rehabilitation of their lives. (end)