Japan's disaster responses can no longer be left to municipalities alone

Disasters that claim many lives are occurring one after another across Japan, and threats such as a megaquake are also drawing closer. At the same time, the aging of society and declining birth rate are reducing the number of people who support society. Sept. 1 is Disaster Preparedness Day in Japan. We should consider what disaster responses should look like at this turning point.

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Immediately after the quake, large quantities of food, sanitary goods and other supplies from the national government and companies arrived at the local governments affected. But the final step of getting them to evacuation centers stalled.

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Why do such problems keep recurring? Taku Sugano, an associate professor of human geography at Osaka Metropolitan University, points out, "What government is good at is building hard infrastructure. In the background is the fact that, with that mindset intact, disaster response has ended up being based on a public-works-state model."

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What is indispensable is making greater use of the private sector's capabilities.

Sorting and transporting supplies can be entrusted to logistics companies, building inspections to property and casualty insurers and evacuation center operations to experienced nonprofit organizations, while municipalities handle overall management. We want to expand such systems. To make that happen, public-private cooperation in ordinary times will be important.

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Special warnings of danger from "once in several decades" rain damage were issued in rapid succession recently in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo and the Hokuriku region along the Sea of Japan. There is no time to wait in preparing for disasters. We must urgently rebuild the systems that protect lives.