Legal assistance needed for disaster victims
"I can't repay loans for my house and fishing boat, which were swept away by the tsunami."
"I was fired by my company immediately after the disaster."
Day after day, these and other complaints are heard during legal consultations for people in areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Local lawyers associations have generously given counsel at evacuation centers and elsewhere. So have other lawyers who have gathered from across the country.
Legal worries are a huge burden on disaster victims. Support from lawyers must be bolstered to find compassionate solutions for the victims.
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations organized three days of free legal consultations at 95 evacuation centers in Miyagi Prefecture from April 29 to May 1. A total of 305 lawyers from 11 prefectures took part in the event.
People sought advice in 1,000 cases, many related to mortgage, real estate and inheritance issues.
Consultations are also given by lawyers at evacuation centers in Fukushima Prefecture. One farmer who sought advice complained that "farm produce cannot be shipped because of groundless rumors" in the aftermath of the recent nuclear crisis in the prefecture.
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Lawsuits in the offing
Lawsuits are expected to be filed over compensation for damage. Court battles are also expected over land utilization plans and industrial revitalization during the process of recovery and reconstruction from the disaster.
The parties in such cases will have to appear in court. But many damaged areas are located far from the nearest court, and legal practioners are thin on the ground.
After the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, judges and civil affairs mediation committee members were deployed to a disaster center established at the Kobe District Court. More than 2,000 cases were brought in for consultation and mediation, and almost all were resolved in about three years.
It would be helpful if there were a center to deal intensively with legal issues related to the current disaster. The Supreme Court is looking into the possibility of increasing the number of judges in disaster areas. We want the top court to secure enough judges to meet victims' needs as well as establish a place that can offer solutions.
How disaster victims' legal costs will be covered is an important question. Many victims fled to evacuation centers with only the barest necessities as their houses and property were washed away.
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Flexible application
The Japan Legal Support Center, an independent administrative agency, provides a civil affairs legal assistance system to help finance legal fees for economically distressed people. The system requires screening of personal assets and income to qualify for financial assistance. But it is necessary to apply the system flexibly.
Ideally, it is better to solve a legal dispute before the case is taken to court. To facilitate this, the Sendai Bar Association has established an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) center.
At the ADR center, lawyers and other experts serve as mediators to resolve legal disputes through talks. We suggest that other devastated areas also consider introducing the ADR system.
If legal disputes drag on, it will hamper the progress of recovery work. Now is the time for legal practioners to work together toward early solutions.
Digital TV transition rightly eased in Tohoku
While most of the nation is expected to finish switching from analog TV broadcasting to terrestrial digital broadcasting by July 24, the final conversion has been postponed for up to a year in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.
A number of households in the Tohoku region still view only analog television programs. The postponement of the end of such broadcasts reflects the government's view that it would be harsh to stubbornly forge ahead with the analog-to-digital transition in areas that have suffered a financial blow from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, given the additional burden people would incur in buying new TVs or other equipment capable of receiving digital broadcasts.
If not for the Great East Japan Earthquake, local governments in the Tohoku region would have made a final spurt in encouraging residents to prepare for digital broadcasts when there were fewer than 100 days left until the initially planned full transition from analog to digital services. However, the March 11 disaster struck just a few weeks before that time. It is difficult for them to devote resources to that task now.
If analog broadcasting were terminated as initially scheduled, a large number of people in the Tohoku region would be unable to enjoy TV broadcasts. Given this, it is reasonable for the government to delay the full analog-to-digital switch in the three prefectures for the sake of placing priority on post-quake rehabilitation there.
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Some households unready
Only slow progress has been made in facilitating the analog-to-digital transfer in the Tohoku region. At the end of last year, the penetration rate of digital broadcasting receivers in the three prefectures, including TV sets and tuners, was one point to four points lower than the national average of 94.9 percent.
The situation has been exacerbated by the earthquake and tsunami. According to one estimate, households in these areas that would need to be fitted with digital broadcast receivers, including those whose equipment was destroyed by the disaster, would total about 60,000.
Flat-screen TVs capable of receiving digital broadcasts have been installed at temporary shelters set up in the wake of the March 11 disaster, enabling residents of such makeshift housing to view digital programs.
But difficulties remain for people who are still living in their own quake-hit homes. They include families whose antennas and TVs were damaged by the calamity after they made the equipment compatible with digital services, as well as those who had yet to make the conversion.
We believe the government should consider measures to aid such disaster-stricken households by, for example, providing them with financial assistance for restoring their antennas and distributing digital tuners to them without charge.
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Broadcasters in a bind
Meanwhile, television stations in the three prefectures must take measures to address problems facing their broadcasting business in the wake of the disaster.
Because of their affiliation with the networks of key TV stations in Tokyo, these regional stations will be in a bind if the major stations end analog broadcasting in July, as they will have to convert the digital programs they will then receive into analog services.
A drop in the local stations' advertising revenue due to the quake could be combined with an increase in their expenses due to continued analog services, thus hurting their financial condition. With this in mind, the government should extend a certain measure of support--financial or otherwise--to the local stations.
The March 11 disaster served as a reminder of the important role TV stations play in promptly reporting to the public about the extent of damage and providing survivors with information needed to sustain their daily lives.
The analog-to-digital conversion will increase such benefits to TV viewers as a wide variety of detailed information that will be provided to them about their communities.
We hope the prefectural governments of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima will couple their post-quake restoration work with efforts to further facilitate the spread of terrestrial digital broadcasting among residents of their areas. The national government should aid them in this task by, for instance, sending necessary personnel to these local governments.
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