Japan Lower House Passes Bill on Peninsular Disaster Prevention

Tokyo, March 18 (Jiji Press)--Japan’s House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, passed Tuesday a bill aimed at strengthening disaster prevention measures in peninsular regions of the country.

The bill to revise the peninsular areas development law, compiled through suprapartisan discussions, was approved by a majority vote. It is centered around advancing disaster prevention efforts that take into consideration the unique geographic features of peninsulas, based on the lessons from a massive earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula in central Japan last year.

It also extends the law, initially set to expire at the end of this month, by 10 years.

The Noto temblor showed that peninsular regions are prone to becoming isolated after disasters as routes into affected regions are limited.

The bill calls for promoting disaster prevention and regional revitalization also in peninsular areas that are not designated by the law as regions subject to special prevention measures.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]