Cramped quarters

Well, I guess it's better than those formaldehyde drenched clap traps that FEMA put up after Katrina.

The one in the back has a roof?

this is just sad. when is the govt. gonna put these people in real places to live. it looks like a clean version of skid row in LA

But.... It may take many months if not years before these people can return to there homes..... if their homes are still standing..... so why not give them decent accommodations......

This place should be renamed the Grand Prince Corrugated Box Hotel in Koriyama. How much do they chare a night?

I live in Koriyama. I am a bit disappointed to see how poorly the city has set them up. Lots of onsen hotels around here. TEPCO or the government should be setting them up at some of these. At least Big Palette is a modern building and they will be warm and dry. One of my students has been taking futons and other things over there for her neighbourhood group. She says there are a lot of people in there.

You are right, koriyamaboy. It's the same up in Fukushima city. It seems the government is either a/ too stingy to pay for decent accomodation or b/ doing the usual red-tape shenanigans that mean 1000 people have to approve and sign off on relocation for these victims. So sad.

This is just wrong. No reason why these people shouldn't have decent accommodations.

This is a shame, I agree totally with BurakuminDes and Koriyamaboy, why do these victims of the disaster have to be setup like this. This is just terrible. These Poor people have pretty much lost everything they had including family and friends and this is the best the Government / local Governments can do for them. Very disheartening! I think too much red tape everywhere.

bontakun & others.

Pls, provide those. Granted the pic looks bad but it looks like a walkway in a court. Takes time to build housings, etc to move those people.

Said that it looks worse than other centres I have seen on the news.

All in all easy for us who got our homes left and got PC's to say do better, when most have no glue on how to do it. But could we?

too stingy to pay for decent accomodation

What is "decent accommodation" to you?

Umm, how about somewhere not on a cold hard floor and without cardboard separating the next person? Look, it was necessary to have these makeshift shelters for a short time, they have been very important - but not for months. The hotels, ryokans, vacant houses in other prefectures etc are there, empty and available. Some of these people can't move back into their houses for 9 months minimum - likely much more. Let's all hope the red-tape is expediated and they can be put into accomodation ASAP.

where? I told you where. put up some money and contract out some hotels that are probably just sitting empty in a normally busy tourist season. Burakumindes. Are you living in Fukushima City?

reminds me of shinjuku station

koriyamaboy.

Sure the goverment will pay for hotel accomodation when the same cost can cover triple the amount of refugees easily.

And you will be happy to pay for it with your taxes.

Yep, I am Koriyamaboy, and still all the evacuees here - to the best of my knowledge - are staying in gymnasiums, public centres and schools. Plenty of vacant hotels and ryokans up here, let me tell you, in fact most of them have been pretty vacant for years!

I remember the days when it looked like this inside Shinjuku Station. Take away the concrete around those boxes and put in a tree or two and a river bed and it looks like any typical homeless area scattered along rivers, etc.

Haven't there been like trillions of yen donated by corporations and individuals to the Japan Red Cross for relief efforts? (The Uniglo guy alone gave JPY 1.0 trillion I believe) Can't those funds be used to get these folks some decent accomodations?

Yes, there have been billions of yen donated. Major grocery stores in northern California have donated $100,000 USD EACH to the relief. The actual amount may never be known. The message in the USA is that the Japanese government doesn't know what to do with the warehouses full of food in Japan, how to distribute the good, and what to do with the money. Is the message true? Can any reader verify or discredit this report? The truth needs to be told, and the voters need to remember the officials incompetence at the next election.

That`s right Zenny11. It is called compassion.

Take care up there Burakumindes. Our radiation levels here are still high too. About the same as you guys.

koriyamaboy.

I also got compassion for the people up there but mine is tempered by realism as to what can be done, etc within a certain time-frame, money, ....

Well. I am up here. I guess that is the difference.

these boxes remind me of haiti. a shame for a developed nation to not do better. move them to empty office floors if you have to but give them some decency.

Wow. At first I thought this could be the salaryman Japanese typical office I used to work in. Agree: what's the big holdup between all the donated money coming in and getting these poor people into unused hotels etc, or even a decent futon?????????

Per a Yomiuri article yesterday, the Relief Distribution Committee for Iwate is set to start handing out checks Apr 20.

for a dead/missing person: JPY500,000 (350,000 from J government, 150,000 from Iwate prefecture) for the house fully destroyed: JPY500,000 (350,000 from J government, 150,000 from Iwate prefecture) for the house half destroyed: JPY250,000 (J 180,000, Iwate 70,000)

The money will be paid to each city/town/village by the prefectural government on 20th April, and each municipality will then apply the payment to each household.

Wow, this facility makes the evacuation centers in Miyagi and Iwate look gorgeous. Looks like the evacuees elsewhere are being treated better than in Fukushima.

Shame on Japan for allowing this when people have donated so much money to help those in need. This is exactly what people were hoping to be able to offer relief from when they put their money into collection tins and gave to the red cross.

What is the hold up? Get these poor people a bit of decency and comfort now. This is not their fault, not mother natures fault. This is Tepcos fault, and these people should be put up in hotels at Tepco`s expense.