The government has completed 40 of a planned 23,000 planned emergency houses to accommodate victims of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
To house those left without shelter by the disaster, the government announced plans to build thousands of emergency public housing structures. However, recent reports suggest that paperwork has been started on 7,351 houses and construction has begun on just 1,673.
NHK reported Monday that of the 40 houses that have been completed, 12 are in Fukushima and 28 are in Nagano Prefecture. Around 305,000 people in 8 prefectures are still homeless following the disaster and are being housed in temporary shelters or accommodation rented by the government.
© Japan Today
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Rick Kisa
Only 40 after almost 2 years since the earthquake?!! Amazing!
Yubaru
And just how much money has been spent so far? I'll bet each of these houses cost 10 times more than they should have and the construction companies that built them had nice fat year end bonuses too!
globalwatcher
Speechless.
Probie
Well, what do you expect? The government has been so busy giving more cash to TEPCO.
The criminals at TEPCO give then presents of cash in envelopes, average people can't do that, so **** them.
kaminarioyaji
They're just not taking it seriously at all, are they?
Shocking, but far from surprising in TIJ
Knox Harrington
A disgrace but hardly surprising. Japan has lost its edge and seems to slip further down every single year. The efficiency is replaced by complacency and since the Japanese people don't demand decent politicians, they get what they get, which is a bunch of oyaji with far too deep ties with the businesses of Japan. Unhealthy to say the least. Japanese of today also seem unable to speak the hell up, for themselves and for their neighbors. Ultimately, you get the kind "leaders" you deserve and in this case, due to complete social uninterest and no will at all to help their neighbors, this is what you get. Taihen.
Disillusioned
Yes, extremely shocking and disappointing indeed! I would love to hear a statement from the J-Gov as to why it is taking so long. It is true that many areas have been left without any infrastructure, roads, power, water, etc. but that is no excuse to leave these people in limbo. What exactly is the j-Gov doing about it?
Tony Ojiro
Japan's total Housing starts for this year is on the rise to be approx 880,000 units. Nice to see where everyone's priority is.
smithinjapan
Wow... What's that, 0.2% of their promise? At least they paid to get the whalers off on time. Priorities, priorities.
Jan Claudius Weirauch
The people in this country sadly don't give 2 sh**s about, as long as they are not affected them self, if the people not affected would press the government to get a move on they might completed some units earlier - citizens of Japan allow the government and it's big CEO's to be slow and pocket all the cash, media gives a short outcry and tomorrow it's forgotten. Same about the bases in Okinawa, it's far from mainland so who -except Okinawan's- cares??
Sad destiny!
Rika1
What is this article???
The last time I was in Tohoku was in September 2011. That time - just 6 months after the disaster - they had many "temporary housing units", where people who had lost their homes found a place to live. Those houses are small and basic and ment to be home to the people for ideally not more than 2-3 years until other solutions (build new permanent houses?) are found. I don't know the exact number, but there are thousands of these houses, much much more then the suggested 40.
Here you can see pictures: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/sasaootako/61837002.html
This article is either not correct or at least giving an extremly wrong impression. I know that the situation in Tohoku is not great - but it's not as bad as suggested in this article.
thkanner
doesnt suprise me cos goverment has no money to spend. nearly 50% of budgetw as spend to keep the ponzi scheme bonds alive. in future there will be no money for pension, health etc....
Moderator
The story is correct.
cramp
0.1739% nice, and i thought jpn prided itself on efficiency?
albaleo
@Rika1
I have to agree that the article is confusing. A Mainichi article from July 2011 reported that over 35,000 temporary homes had been completed in three prefectures, about 75% of the estimated number that were needed. One point raised in the article was that the take up of the units had been slow.
Perhaps the articles is 'correct' in the sense that it is talking about units built by central government and not the prefectural governments.
sillygirl
this is just so sad. where is all the money going? that is what this taxpayer (who has no vote being foreign and all) wants to know.
Charles M Burns
Wow, this is because it lacks priority. Foreign companies have offered to build the houses.
japan_cynic
But they've started the paperwork! that's the important thing!
(well, some of the paperwork)
BertieWooster
Japan_cynic-san,
Yes, I noticed that.
Shouldn't be too long now.
A couple of years at most.
Then, once the paperwork is done, they'll have a few meetings to decide when to actually start building.
And it won't be too long after that!
badsey3
Where is the money going?
TEPCO is wants another Y697 billion.
So who is responsible for the "305,000 people in 8 prefectures are still homeless following the disaster and are being housed in temporary shelters or accommodation rented by the government"?
badsey3
-another horrible Christmas story.
Leslie Corrice
Japan Today should be commended for posting this all-too-brief article. I'm not clear on one point...does the number of 305,000 remaining evacuees include those forced to leave the Fukushima no-go zones, or not?
Disillusioned
Leslie - To answer your question, NO! This data is only tsunami evacuees. The TEPCO evacuees are a primate matter.i got a rent a car a few weeks ago and went for a drive up to Sendai. Most of the coastline still looks as if the tsunami happened yesterday. Very little has changed in nearly two years, but at least the j-gov is not using recovery funds to escort their whaling ships to the southern ocean this year. What exactly are they doing with those funds? Waiting for interest payments?
Lizz
According to the NHK article, the trouble seems to be securing permanent housing sites on land high enough to build on combined with insufficient staffing at the prefecture level (government workers still missing ?).
Aristoman
40 mil dolars on nuclear research from disaster recovery budget, 23 mil dolars against Sea shepherd from disaster recovery budget, 4 mil dollars on gun ammunition in Matsushima army base from disaster recovery budget,... ... And I could go on... How come that only 40 houses were recovered??? This is madness!!! I have two words for responsible byrocrats. .... You!!!!
LiveInTokyo
Absolutely shocking. "Kizuna" (bonds) - wasn`t it word of the year in 2011? What a load of rubbish.
Tohoku has very little of value in it to the rest of Japan, so I really doubt anyone (in the government at least) will make a serious effort to get things back to normal. It`ll be left to volunteer groups that will be doing their best with limited resources.
But what can we expect, this from a country that misused 25% of donations that were meant to be going to these areas. Sometimes it must be very embarrassing to be Japanese.
nigelboy
20 plus posts later, someone finally checks the original story to fill in the missing information. Kudos to Lizz.
It's also worth mentioning that many coastal areas lack elevated sites and the ones that they do have are already occupied by the temporary housing units.
Bartholomew Harte
As a N.Y.er with many in my family displaced, as well as relatives in distress in the Fukushima area I feel your anguish and have had it up to my neck with B.S. Politicians who are Not Doing the Job they were elected to do but instead are already thinking about THEIR next step up& Not helping anyone but themselves!
mitoguitarman
Truly disgusting. Just disgusting.
Yubaru
Japan doesnt celebrate Christmas(sarcasm) It's another horrible New Year's story.