Japan Press Weekly

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2014 February 19 - 25 [POLITICS]

Gov’t should spend more money in repairing aging infrastructure: JCP Kokuta

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kokuta Keiji on February 19 at a House Budget Committee meeting demanded that the government put more emphasis on repairing aging public infrastructure than constructing new ones.

Kokuta said that the state annually spends 2.4 trillion yen of taxpayer’s money in constructing expressways, which is around 10 times more than the amount highway companies expect to use for repair work on their highways.

While the Infrastructure Ministry estimated that it needed 3.6 trillion yen for maintenance on infrastructure in Fiscal Year 2013, the actual budget allocated was much less than that, Kokuta said.

Citing the major accident involving fatalities due to lack of proper maintenance at the Sasago Tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in December 2012, the JCP lawmaker stressed that negligence in maintenance could lead to another serious accident.

Kokuta also mentioned that municipal governments, which maintain and repair 80% of all public infrastructure, find it difficult to do the needed repairs due to the inadequate budget allotted.