Japan adopts ¥20 trillion anti-disaster program
The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba gave the green light on Friday to the government's new five-year anti-disaster program worth over ¥20 trillion, about ¥5 trillion larger than the current one.
The fiscal 2026-2030 program, starting next April, focuses on rebuilding aging infrastructure and stepping up preparations for huge disasters, such as ones that would be caused by massive earthquakes expected to occur along the Nankai Trough, which stretches off the Pacific coast of central to southwestern Japan, or directly beneath the Tokyo metropolitan area.
At a National Resilience Promotion Headquarters gathering held prior to the Cabinet meeting, Ishiba, head of the task force, said that "all relevant government agencies should get united to strongly drive forward efforts" to finish preparing necessary equipment and evacuation facilities as soon as possible.
Under the new program, funds worth around ¥10.6 trillion would be poured into seismic reinforcement work for aging water and sewerage systems as well as roads, ¥5.8 trillion into measures against river flooding, and ¥1.8 trillion into boosting regional efforts for disaster prevention and reduction, including improving living conditions and food availability at evacuation centers.
In particular, the government intends to beef up anti-disaster measures on peninsulas, where afflicted areas are prone to isolation, and "strategically" maintain and manage the water and sewerage systems, taking lessons from the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake and the fatal road cave-in caused by a ruptured sewerage pipe in Saitama Prefecture earlier this year.
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