Rain, risk of another calamity hamper search for mudslide victims in Atami

The forest holds the ground.

To get a build permit, professionals will study the terrain.

Whoever allowed buildings in that mountain, he should be very concerned.

This is a human disaster.

I absolutely agree tat the causes should be determined and those at fault should be held responsible.

They dumped earths where the mudslide got started to build the mega solar panels which already exist. The victims have rights to sue the related companies and the local government which allowed the project. In the video, the mega solar panels are seen in the left.

https://www.sut-tv.com/news/indiv/10931/

Whoever is responsible for this mess, I wanna see him with a shovel , cleaning it up.

Solar Panel Farms will do it, bare mountains with no trees and roots to hold the earth will cause a land erosion and landslides.

Shizuoka Prefecture governor Heita Kawakatsu said yesterday that they would investigate who and for what purpose they dumped the earths there.

As a Japanese @vanityofvanities 7:23am, we’d like to see more of your observations & comments:

“They dumped earths where the mudslide got started to build the mega solar panels which already exist.This is a human disaster.

Jul 3  6:31pm “BBC reporter suggested cutting trees of the upper mountain of the area to build solar panels might have contributed to the disaster.” -

… more often and across other threads as well.

So, if the solar farms are determined to be the cause, then the people should sue the government, right? Because they government made the laws that allowed the construction of the solar farm.

They could sue the government, the developer, the landowner and basically anyone else whose negligence contributed to this.

There is a piece of legislation called the State Redress Act which gives private persons the ability to sue the government for damages caused as a result of the negligence of government officials in the performance of their duties. I have no idea what the process for approving construction on mountainous areas like this is, but if there was negligence by the government they could well be held liable.

They could sue the government, the developer, the landowner and basically anyone else whose negligence contributed to this.

That's all well and fine - but you have to prove negligence. You can't just throw the word around and expect the world to bow down to you.

This will easily be a case where force majeure is declared. You know how much Japanese like to say "想定外" or 'unexpected' - that's what will happen here.

In reality I doubt this will ever get to court. The government usually sets up some sort of compensation fund for victims in cases like this under which they give up the right to sue (I think that is happened in Hiroshima a few years ago when there was a similar landslide). Of course, the fact that they have the right to sue in the first place helps ensure governments do that.

I knew a woman whose empty family house was in Hiroshima, not 100m from the area hit hardest by that landslide. She and her husband lived in Tokyo but went down there 2 or 3 times a year to air the house and cut the grass etc. They went down after the big landslide, which killed around 70 people iirc, to check on the place. The neighbours said that many new houses up the hill had been built on flimsy foundations that were totally inadequate and hinted darkly at connivance between the developers and the planning department at city hall.

The Kinugawa floods in Ibaraki a few years ago were exacerbated because a construction company had apparently helped itself to sand used as ballast along the riverbanks, thus weakening them.

No it is not. It is a natural disaster. An example of human disaster is what happened in Florida.

We don't know that yet because we don't know the cause of the mudslide. If the clearing and development of the land (human activity) is what caused the ground to collapse under the rain, then it is fair to call it a human disaster. If the land would have collapsed regardless of whether it had been cleared or not then I think its fair to call it a natural disaster.

I see a lot of "rescue" workers who are NOT rescuing!!!

That's all well and fine - but you have to prove negligence. You can't just throw the word around and expect the world to bow down to you.

Of course you do, that is how the legal system in any country works. I would have thought that obvious.

This will easily be a case where force majeure is declared.

Force majeure is a doctrine from contract law, it doesn't apply to negligence claims like this one is likely to proceed as.

You know how much Japanese like to say "想定外" or 'unexpected' - that's what will happen here.

That isn't just a Japanese thing, in common law countries (and most civil law countries too) the damage from a negligent act has to be foreseeable for the victim to succeed in a claim.

We don't really know enough about the facts of this case to say anything about whether there was negligence and, if so, who committed it. Maybe the government risk assessment/ map was faulty or out of date, in which case maybe the government was mainly at fault. Maybe the developer did something that went beyond what they were allowed to do (felling trees where they weren't supposed to, piling up dirt in a hazardous area, etc) in which case they would likely be the party mainly at fault. Its all just speculation until we know more about what actually happened to cause this (though it seems clear that somebody likely screwed up and contributed to this happening).

@rainyday

I agree. But the fact that most of the evidence has slid down the hill will make it difficult to prove negligence.

Take a look at the hazard maps for this town.

https://www.city.atami.lg.jp/_res/projects/default_project/page/001/000/585/guidebook_dosya-hazard.pdf

The area in question was built slap bang in the middle of a mudslide warning zone. There is no excuse for these kind of fatalities. The risks are very clear, and the government should be making sure the people living there are safe. How they can even think about developing in these areas is insane.

I agree. But the fact that most of the evidence has slid down the hill will make it difficult to prove negligence.

True. Well, we still have the maps, inspection reports, etc (if they exist).

In reality I doubt this will ever get to court. The government usually sets up some sort of compensation fund for victims in cases like this under which they give up the right to sue (I think that is happened in Hiroshima a few years ago when there was a similar landslide). Of course, the fact that they have the right to sue in the first place helps ensure governments do that.

I absolutely agree tat the causes should be determined and those at fault should be held responsible.

So, if the solar farms are determined to be the cause, then the people should sue the government, right? Because they government made the laws that allowed the construction of the solar farm.

"I absolutely agree tat the causes should be determined and those at fault should be held responsible."

It is called solar power. They have been clearing land to make way for Solar panels.

80% of Japan's 47 prefectures have problems with solar power plants

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210702/p2a/00m/0bu/002000c

obladi - I absolutely agree tat the causes should be determined and those at fault should be held responsible

Yes! Let’s hold the gods accountable for too much rain in the rainy season, shall we?