Huge damages were inflicted by the large earthquakes which struck the Noto Peninsula on January 1, 2024. Rescuing systems are insufficient, and the tremor-related deaths continue as a result of quakes. Lessons from the Hanshin-Awaji (1995), the eastern Japan areas (2011) and Kumamoto (2016) are not learned rightly. What can we draw from with vexation?
INCREASE PUBLIC WORKERS AND ORGANIZE TEAMS TO COPE WITH NATURAL DISASTERS!
40% of public workers are employed on the irregular basis
According to the Basic Act for Natural Disasters, the primary responses to cope with the hazards shall lie in the basic municipality, which is a city, a town or a village. It is because such a local body is the closest to the affected site and can play a vital role.
However, all the municipalities, in real term, do not have sufficient financial and personnel capabilities to tackle the catastrophes. Forty percent of workers in the local governments are employed on the irregular basis and many of the public sections to deal with scenes of disastrous incidents are privatized. Practically it is hard for the municipalities to respond properly to emergencies, to train staffs and to pile up experiences. The similar difficulties were revealed in tackling the adversity of Covid-19.
Realities in Japan tell us that preparedness is inadequate for protecting people’s lives from infectious diseases and natural disasters and recovering living conditions immediately.
Absence of nuclear power plant in Suzu City
At the Shika Nuclear Power Station (Shika Town, Ishikawa Prefecture) of the Horukiru Electric Power Co., the earthquakes have spoiled electric transformers, which has led to a temporary disruption of cooling function. At the same time the ground level was raised by three meters. A fault stretching over three-kilometer long was detected, seemingly, a slip yielded on the Togigawa River’s Southern Bank Fault, but the electric company had denied existence of this active fault.
It is said that a movement of an active fault happens once in several thousand years, and, according to recent investigations, a fault links with other active faults when they bring big tremors.
The epicenter of the Earthquakes lies, reportedly, in the active fault off the coast of the peninsula, which, highly likely, impacted on moving the active faults inside the neck of land. That means everywhere across the country an active fault may lead to movements of other faults to cause big earthquakes.
Suzu City and its adjacent areas, or the disaster scene, had had a plan 40 years ago to be an energy supply base as a candidate site for a nuclear power plant (NPP). Due to the long-lasting people’s movements to oppose the construction, the plan was withdrawn in 1988. If it had been realized in the city, a severe nuclear incident could have occurred.
Today the government of Japan has forgotten the lessons from Fukushima and has turned its stance self-righteously to encouraging nuclear power generation. The best way to evade nuclear disasters lies in absence of NPPs as Japan is a well-known earthquake-ridden country.
Create rescue teams to cope with natural disasters
In the country when people hear of a rescue party, they recall a troop from the Self Defense Forces (SDF). The SDF, however, on January 7, the most critical moment of initial mobilization to tackle the earthquakes in the Noto area, held a multinational maneuver together with the US and the UK militaries in the Narashino SDF Training Base, Chiba Prefecture. Assuming a retrieval of some of the southwestern islands, participants involved in the parachuting exercise in order to authorize the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy.
The New Socialist Party (NSP) has long insisted on creation of permanent rescue teams to cope with disasters as natural catastrophes frequently hit the country. The NSP strongly appeals that it is necessary to reorganize portion of the SDF immediately to be specialist rescue teams.
４割が非正規では
災害対策基本法では、災害時の第一次対応は基礎的自治体である市町村がすることになっている。被災現場に最も近い自治体が大きな役割を果たすことは当然だからだ。
しかし、現実の自治体には担うだけの財政力、人的資源がない。自治体職員の４割は非正規職員であり、実際の業務を担う現業部門の多くは民営化されている。緊急時対応も訓練も、経験蓄積も実際上困難になっている。それは、新型コロナでも露呈した。
日本の現実は、感染症や自然災害から命を守り、速やかに生活を再建するための備えが整っていないのだ。
珠洲原発がなくて
北陸電力志賀原発（石川県志賀町）は地震で変圧器が破損して一時冷却できず、地表も３㍍隆起した。「富来川南岸断層」のズレと見られる長さ３㌔超の断層が見つかったが、北陸電はこの活断層を否定していた。
活断層が動くのは数千年に１度といわれるが、他の活断層による大地震でも連動することが最近の調査で判っている。
今回の震源となった能登半島沖の活断層とともに、半島内の活断層も動いた可能性が高いという。日本中、どこでも活断層が連動し大地震が発生する可能性が高まっているのだ。
今回の震源地・珠洲市一帯は40年前、原発建設予定地としてエネルギー基地にする計画が進んでいた。長期の反対運動の中で88年に原発建設推進が断念されたが、もし珠洲市に原発が建設されていたら、深刻な原発事故が起きた可能性が高かったと言える。
政府は今、「フクシマ」を忘れ去り、原発推進への転換を強行した。世界一の地震大国では、原発がないことが原発災害を防ぐ最良の道だ。
災害救助隊創設を
日本では災害救援と言えば自衛隊と言われる。その自衛隊は１月７日、地震発生から最も重要な初動の時期に千葉県の習志野演習場で南西諸島の離島奪還などを想定し、米英軍などと「自由で開かれたインド太平洋」維持のための降下訓練を実施していた。
新社会党は、災害大国の日本には常設の災害対策組織が必要と主張してきた。自衛隊の一部を改組し、今すぐに専門の災害救助組織を創設することを強く求めるものである。
英訳版↓
No. 1340 In order to Well Protect People’s Lives
Huge damages were inflicted by the large earthquakes which struck the Noto Peninsula on January 1, 2024. Rescuing systems are insufficient, and the tremor-related deaths continue as a result of quakes. Lessons from the Hanshin-Awaji (1995), the eastern Japan areas (2011) and Kumamoto (2016) are not learned rightly. What can we draw from with vexation?
INCREASE PUBLIC WORKERS AND ORGANIZE TEAMS TO COPE WITH NATURAL DISASTERS!
40% of public workers are employed on the irregular basis
According to the Basic Act for Natural Disasters, the primary responses to cope with the hazards shall lie in the basic municipality, which is a city, a town or a village. It is because such a local body is the closest to the affected site and can play a vital role.
However, all the municipalities, in real term, do not have sufficient financial and personnel capabilities to tackle the catastrophes. Forty percent of workers in the local governments are employed on the irregular basis and many of the public sections to deal with scenes of disastrous incidents are privatized. Practically it is hard for the municipalities to respond properly to emergencies, to train staffs and to pile up experiences. The similar difficulties were revealed in tackling the adversity of Covid-19.
Realities in Japan tell us that preparedness is inadequate for protecting people’s lives from infectious diseases and natural disasters and recovering living conditions immediately.
Absence of nuclear power plant in Suzu City
At the Shika Nuclear Power Station (Shika Town, Ishikawa Prefecture) of the Horukiru Electric Power Co., the earthquakes have spoiled electric transformers, which has led to a temporary disruption of cooling function. At the same time the ground level was raised by three meters. A fault stretching over three-kilometer long was detected, seemingly, a slip yielded on the Togigawa River’s Southern Bank Fault, but the electric company had denied existence of this active fault.
It is said that a movement of an active fault happens once in several thousand years, and, according to recent investigations, a fault links with other active faults when they bring big tremors.
The epicenter of the Earthquakes lies, reportedly, in the active fault off the coast of the peninsula, which, highly likely, impacted on moving the active faults inside the neck of land. That means everywhere across the country an active fault may lead to movements of other faults to cause big earthquakes.
Suzu City and its adjacent areas, or the disaster scene, had had a plan 40 years ago to be an energy supply base as a candidate site for a nuclear power plant (NPP). Due to the long-lasting people’s movements to oppose the construction, the plan was withdrawn in 1988. If it had been realized in the city, a severe nuclear incident could have occurred.
Today the government of Japan has forgotten the lessons from Fukushima and has turned its stance self-righteously to encouraging nuclear power generation. The best way to evade nuclear disasters lies in absence of NPPs as Japan is a well-known earthquake-ridden country.
Create rescue teams to cope with natural disasters
In the country when people hear of a rescue party, they recall a troop from the Self Defense Forces (SDF). The SDF, however, on January 7, the most critical moment of initial mobilization to tackle the earthquakes in the Noto area, held a multinational maneuver together with the US and the UK militaries in the Narashino SDF Training Base, Chiba Prefecture. Assuming a retrieval of some of the southwestern islands, participants involved in the parachuting exercise in order to authorize the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy.
The New Socialist Party (NSP) has long insisted on creation of permanent rescue teams to cope with disasters as natural catastrophes frequently hit the country. The NSP strongly appeals that it is necessary to reorganize portion of the SDF immediately to be specialist rescue teams.
January 31 2024