Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Thursday named Tatsuo Hirano to head the new reconstruction agency, which will be inaugurated on Friday.
Hirano was formerly the cabinet minister in charge of reconstruction for the Tohoku area devastated in the March 11 disaster.
The Diet approved a bill in December to create the new agency which will formulate a plan to rebuild the disaster area. It will operate until March 2021.
Noda said requests from disaster-hit areas will go to the agency which he hopes will respond in an accelerated way, NHK reported.
The reconstruction agency, which will have a staff of 250, also has responsibility for assisting companies affected by the nuclear crisis. It will have branch offices in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.
The agency will be in charge of requests and allocations for funds from the reconstruction budget. It will have authority over other ministries, NHK reported.
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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wanderlust
All the fundings allocated for rebuilding are slowly being eroded by these bureaucrats. New offices, costs of staff moves, and no doubt endless meetings with local construction companies - the Japan pork-barrel in full swing...
nath
It is a govt. not run by the people, not for the people.
mctavish
TEPCO?
smithinjapan
So a new agency is created that is supposed to do exactly the same thing as the government was supposed to do anyway. Does this in any way change anything besides diverting more funds to support yet another agency? Requests were sent to Hirano as cabinet minister, now they'll be sent to him again. What's the difference? It's not like he was dealing with much else as cabinet minister (not that he was dealing with anything well at all there).
smithinjapan
Sounds like more, "Okay, we've been unsuccessful in doing anything for a year, and the public knows it, so let's create a 'new group' so it looks like we're starting something anew!"
Cricky
Fellow posters, see the humor in this tell all your friends about it as an example of Japanese efficiency. We as past and shrinking present, know it's a bad joke, "change the name and all is forgotten culture". Talk to family and Freinds overseas, they begin horrified and end up laughing at the constant stupidity and baffunary. A population exposed to what amounts to a dirty bomb, no harm to health! Limited exposure to toxic food? Aaaahhhhhh that's regrettable. 3 NPP working no blackouts...but need 55 more for back up? Encouraging families to move back into the danger zone? And a new construction agency to filter funds to the baboons who created the mess, plus the dodgy (see emergency housing) construction companies that still 12 months on have yet to accommodate the evacuees. Japanese Just In Time management principle in action. I will save my good wishes for the 9th reincarnation.
jforce
This is laughable.
herefornow
JapanGal -- great comment. And a big reason as to why Japan is gaining momentum as it slides down the slippery slope into irrelevancy. One year on, and the best they can do is create a new ministry that will last NINE YEARS. At least the bureaucrats are benefitting from the disaster.
CharlieCard
Cricky, compared to the USA..this IS japanese efficiency. Even before this agency was created the cities have mostly been cleaned..but look at a disaster in America like Katrina..it took them years. The Japanese will rebuild quickly.