Reconstruction funds should be used exclusively for disaster-hit areas

要約

It has surfaced that a special account budget to fund reconstruction of communities devastated by the 3/11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster has been used to pay for unrelated projects. The anger felt by people in these communities over the shortage of available funds caused by budget mismanagement is just and reasonable.

The basic policy for disaster reconstruction adopted by the government in July 2011 includes provisions that bureaucrats can take advantage of to utilize budget money for projects not directly related to the disaster areas. It says in part that the true reconstruction of the disaster-hit areas will be impossible without the resuscitation of the Japanese economy.

But the government and the Diet should sincerely respond to complaints from people in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures who were directly affected by the 3/11 disasters. For example, it is reported that more than 60 percent of associations of small and medium-size enterprise owners in the disaster areas that requested aid to revive their enterprises had their requests turned down due to a shortage of funds.

The absurdity of this situation is clear if apparently dubious projects covered by the reconstruction budget are listed. They include efforts to cope with activities of the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd organization (¥2.3 billion), quakeproofing work for 12 buildings of the National Tax Agency (¥1.2 billion), job training-related expenditure for prisons in Hokkaido and Saitama Prefecture (¥30 million), and purchase of six C130 transport planes for the Maritime Self-Defense Force and two C2 transport planes for the Air Self-Defense Force (¥15 billion and ¥29 billion, respectively).

The reconstruction budget is expected to amount to ¥19 trillion in a five-year period from fiscal 2011. It will include ¥10.5 trillion from a surcharge on income and residents’ taxes, which will continue to be imposed for 10 to 25 years. The common-sense principle that the reconstruction budget should be used for projects in the disaster-hit areas should be strictly followed.

日本語の抄訳はウィークリ10月27日号のP18に掲載されています。