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Will Japan build a backup Tokyo

Onlookers get a panoramic view of the city of Tokyo from the first observatory deck during a media preview of the Tokyo Sky Tree tower this week. Some Japanese lawmakers have proposed constructing a “backup city” that could take on the capital’s functions in the event of a catastrophe.

By Alan Boyle

It sounds like a story ripped from the parody-filled pages of The Onion, but some Japanese lawmakers really do want to build a “backup city” that would take over the functions of Tokyo, including tourism, in the event of a catastrophe.

The idea was floated last month at a Tokyo luncheon, with a follow-up in The Telegraph last week. “The idea of being able to have a backup, a spare battery for the functions of the nation … isn’t this really a good idea?” Hajime Ishii, a parliamentarian representing the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, was quoted as saying.

Support for creating an urban Plan B has grown in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in March and led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis. “Preparations are already under way at various levels at various levels to find ways of mitigating possible far-reaching consequences of a much-expected earthquake striking Tokyo,” the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan said.

The lawmakers’ plan calls for building an urban center known as IRTBBC (Integrated Resort, Tourism, Business and Backup City) or NEMIC (National Emergency Management International City) on the 1,236-acre site currently occupied by Osaka International Airport at Itami. Today, Itami is used only as a secondary hub for domestic flights, operating in the shadow of the newer Kansai airport.

The new city would take on all the functions of the capital city in the event of an emergency. It would boast office complexes, resort facilities, parks and even casinos. The city’s centerpiece would be a tower that would rank among the tallest in the world, coming in at just over 650 meters (2,133 feet). It’d be built to house 50,000 residents and accommodate a workday population of around 200,000 people from the Osaka region, The Telegraph reported.

If the plan goes forward, it would rank among history’s most ambitious backup plans. The backers haven’t calculated the cost of building the city. For now, Ishii and his fellow lawmakers — including the Democratic Party’s Banri Kaieda, Shizuka Kamei of the People’s New Party and Ichiro Aisawa of the Liberal Democrats — are merely seeking 14 million yen ($180,000) for a feasibility study.

So far, the reaction has been mixed: Osaka’s governor, Toru Hashimoto, has been quoted as saying that his region is willing to accept the capital backup role, while Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has voiced opposition. And he may not be the only one: It just seems to me that most emergency-management officials, if not most politicians, would prefer to fortify what they have rather than building a whole new complex someplace else.

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Rikuzentakata - Three months after Rikuzentakata was almost destroyed by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576376540883030116.html

Two months after Japan quake, neediest victims still await aid

By Yoko Kubota

updated 5/11/2011 12:57:40 PM ET

Crushed fishing boat which were devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami are collected in Soma

Issei Kato / REUTERS

Fishing boats damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami are collected in Soma, Fukushima prefecture.

TOKYO — The neediest victims of Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami have yet to receive much of the record $2.2 billion aid two months later, mainly because the authorities have yet to identify them, the country’s Red Cross said Wednesday.

The March 11 quake and tsunami and nuclear crisis that followed at the Fukushima Daiichi plant left nearly 25,000 dead or missing, sent more than 117,000 people away from their homes and destroyed infrastructure in the north of Japan.

The Japanese Red Cross Society has so far collected 174 billion yen ($2.2 billion) in relief money, the most it has ever been given for any relief campaign.

The charity distributed about 65 billion yen in April to regional governments in the disaster-hit area, but says that this fund has yet to reach those most in need.

“The biggest problem is that those who should be receiving the money cannot be identified, as more than 10,000 people are still missing, resident registrations are gone and the administrative functions at the periphery are not working,” said Tadateru Konoe, president of the Japanese Red Cross.

“The money has reached the prefectural level, but I recently saw a report that much of the actual distribution (to quake victims) has yet to take place,” he told a news conference.

All of the organization’s relief money is meant to be handed to victims, in cash, and the group has been criticized for the delay in distribution. In 1995, when a huge quake struck Kobe in western Japan, the initial round of cash handouts was made within about two weeks of the disaster.

The Japanese Red Cross still has more than 100 billion yen in relief money, and Konoe, also president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said there was no clear plan yet on how to distribute this. He said the money could also be given to businesses as well as individuals.

Japan has started to clean up and rebuild the damaged region but the job is daunting and the area is still a ruin.

A no-entry zone is still in place 20 km (12 mile) around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, though residents of one town were allowed to return Tuesday for two hours for the first time since the disaster.

In a poll by Yomiuri newspaper that surveyed mayors and leaders of 41 towns and cities in the disaster-struck areas, most said they felt there was no clear vision for rebuilding their lives.

Seventeen mayors said they did not have a clear idea of when the clearing of rubble would finish in their areas, while nine said they did not know when the electricity and water systems would function properly again.

Konoe said that many medical services in disaster-struck areas remained shut and that stress-related illnesses were among the biggest health risks to the displaced.

The total cost of the damage has been estimated at $300 billion, making it the world’s most costly natural disaster. ($1 = 80.835 Japanese Yen)