Quickly pass donations to disaster victims
Huge amounts of money have been donated at home and abroad to survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The Japanese Red Cross Society and the Central Community Chest for Japan have collected about 170 billion yen combined, and municipal governments in disaster-stricken areas have directly received donations of more than 20 billion yen.
In the about 40 days since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the money donated has reached about the same amount as that given after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. The nuclear power plant crisis that has compounded the quake disaster has apparently stirred up feelings of sympathy in many people in Japan and overseas and convinced them to open their wallets.
This money, however, has yet to reach disaster victims.
Thousands of people are still living in temporary shelters without any belongings, having lost everything in the tsunami. They urgently need money just to get by. We hope the donated cash will reach them as soon as possible.
On April 8, the secretariat of the committee in charge of distributing donations, which has been established in the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, decided on distribution details of the first batch of donations. Families will receive 350,000 yen for each person who was killed in the disaster or remains missing, and owners of houses that were destroyed will receive 350,000 yen and people whose homes have been severely damaged will get 180,000 yen.
===
Distribution too slow
The donations will be distributed based of these criteria. Prefectural governments will add some money of their own before handing the cash to disaster victims through city, town and village governments.
The reality, however, is that some disaster-struck municipalities have only just started offering application procedures for receiving donations.
After the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the amount of the first distribution of donations was decided 12 days after the disaster, with people whose homes were destroyed receiving 100,000 yen in the initial payouts. Compared with this, decisions on donation distribution criteria and the payment process to victims of last month's quake and tsunami have been pointedly slow. Many people who generously made donations also probably feel frustrated by this situation.
The immense devastation wrought by the disaster has made it all but impossible for many disaster-hit municipalities to accurately assess the damage to individual households. Administrative functions of some city, town and village governments have been so badly eroded that they are unable to address the task of distributing donations.
To alleviate this situation, the central government, prefectural governments outside the disaster zone and other entities should send personnel to lend a hand with clerical work needed to pass donations to disaster survivors.
===
Make payments uniform
We think a uniform provisional payment should be given to people with damaged homes, rather than wasting time worrying over whether a house should be categorized as "destroyed" or "partially damaged." A closer examination of the degree of damage can wait until the second round of donation distributions.
Cash will be very helpful to disaster victims. These initial payments should be made flexibly and swiftly.
Given the staggering death toll and number of people still unaccounted for, as well as the scale of property damage, much more money will need to be collected.
First of all, the initial batch of donations must be distributed without a hitch to people who desperately need it. This will be a springboard for the next round of support and financial aid. It also will be a message of acknowledgement from Japan to people around the world who have sent their goodwill to disaster victims.
Buy Tohoku products to help revive the region
There is no doubt there are a lot of people who want to support the disaster-hit areas in some way.
But even without going there as some volunteers have done, there is one thing we can do as part of our daily lives: Buy products from disaster-hit areas.
Rice, vegetables and seafood--we see these on our tables every day. In addition, the disaster areas produce many brands of sake, sweets and crafts that enjoy nationwide recognition. Indeed, the Tohoku and northern Kanto regions boast many speciality products.
Buying these products can be considered a form of reconstruction support as it will reinvigorate local industries through consumption. We hope a "Buy Tohoku" movement will expand.
A month after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, some companies in the devastated areas have started rebuilding their businesses.
Seeking support for its efforts, a sake maker in Iwate Prefecture posted a video on the Internet, saying, "Please don't hold back, drink Tohoku sake." The video has attracted wide attention and has been viewed more than 500,000 times.
A long-established maker of sasa kamaboko (a bamboo leaf-shaped fish cake) in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, has resumed operations, encouraged by about 10,000 letters of support sent from people across the nation.
===
Your purchases help create jobs
The revival of local businesses, which generate employment and income, will certainly be a source of encouragement and strength for the disaster-hit areas.
Consumption support campaigns are spreading throughout the nation. Department stores and supermarkets have held events for agricultural products from the disaster areas, and hotels and izakaya pubs have held Tohoku sake fairs.
A noticeable number of people have been visiting shops run by disaster-hit prefectures in major cities. Some company cafeterias have created dishes that include ingredients from Tohoku. It is important that these efforts are not just short-lived but last for a long time.
===
Go enjoy region's sights
The Tohoku region is blessed with many great tourist spots, and making a trip there would be another way to support the region. Sendai Airport resumed some domestic flights on April 13, and the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train line is expected to fully reopen later this month.
The three major annual summer festivals in the Tohoku region, including the Sendai Tanabata festival, are scheduled to be held as planned. We hope the tourism industry organizes a variety of tours to appeal to consumers.
While efforts to boost consumption are gathering steam, prices of agricultural products from disaster-hit areas have collapsed. This is likely because retailers and other sellers have avoided purchasing fruits and vegetables from the areas, claiming consumers would not buy them.
We are happy to see product fairs for local goods packed with people. But the amounts sold on these occasions are not so large. What producers from these areas truly want is for sales and prices to return to normal.
We urge consumers to behave calmly, not be swayed by rumors and carefully examine each product with their own eyes.
0 comments:
Post a Comment