For the road business, in order to secure the indispensable urgent transportation routes for smooth rescue activities, the transportation of urgent material supplies and recovery activities during disasters, measures are being implemented so as to prevent great damage to bridges on urgent transportation routes connecting prefecture offices for regional rescue team to travel upon.

For the harbor business, in order to secure the transportation of disaster victims and urgent material supplies during large-scale earthquakes, key regional disaster prevention centers and reinforced earthquake-resistance wharfs are being developed. At the same time, the development of earthquake-resistance reinforcement of costal roads connecting urgent transportation routes and open spaces (e.g. wooded areas) are being pushed forward.

For the airport business, in order to secure airport functions during earthquakes, seismic retrofitting is being implemented in Tokyo International (Haneda) Airport, Sendai Airport, New Chitose Airport, Niigata Airport, Osaka International Airport (Itami Airport), etc.

For the sewerage business, in order to secure essential functionalities during earthquakes including disaster prevention center toilets and the disinfecting function of treatment spots, the comprehensive sewerage project on the measures against earthquakes was established in FY 2009 and is being implemented intensively, including pipes connecting disaster prevention centers and treatment spots, and seismic retrofitting for water treatment facilities, etc.

8) Improvement of earthquake-resistance levels in public facilities

As part of the measures against the blockage of river courses (natural dam) caused by the Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake in 2008, the emergency measures such as river course digging is continuing and the urgent direct-control local landslide prevention project has been implemented from FY 2009.

Furthermore, in view of such disasters, based on the "details of the legal system regarding the evacuation alert of special sediment disaster etc." suggested by experts in December 2009, measures against sediment disasters are being pushed forward in order to reduce the damages resulting from the large-scale sediment disasters caused by large-scale earthquakes such as Tokyo Inland Earthquakes and Tonankai and Nankai Earthquakes which may occur in the future.

## (9) Measures against snow damage

1) Securing land transportation during winter (Snow-winter Project)

Based on the “Act on Special Measures concerning Maintenance of Road Traffic in Specified Snow Coverage and Cold Districts”, projects for snow removal, snow prevention and frozen snow damage prevention for roads are being carried out in order to support safe and secure life and reinforce the communication/cooperation between regions. Additionally, in order to work out information sharing and unified information provision for traffic stoppages and the snow removal situation during heavy snowfall, information and communication headquarters are to be established by the related organizations such as road administrators.

2) Measures against avalanche disasters in heavy snowfall areas

In Japan, there are around 21,000 sites at risk from avalanches. In order to protect human lives from avalanche disasters in villages, the structural development of snowfall prevention facilities is being pushed forward.

3) Implementation of projects for the introduction of water for snow-melting use

In heavy snowfall areas, in addition to securing flood control functionality, the development of water channels is being carried out so as to channel snow-melting water from rivers rich in water resources to small-size and medium rivers in urban districts.

### 2. Enhancement of Disaster Prevention Systems

(1) Promotion of soft measures by improving information and publicity on safety and security

Tackling with natural disasters and accidents, soft measures on safety and security are implemented with hard measures, such as effective information provision and business continuity plans (BCPs) in disasters. Based on the “MLIT Soft Measures Promotion Outline for Safety and Security” formulated in 2006, yearly progress has been examined. As of June 2009, 77 measures (70%) out of 111 measures in the Outline have been completed.

(2) Sophistication of disaster prevention information

In order to reduce damages (e.g. human lives) to the largest extent, in addition to structural development, comprehensive information measures are being promoted in order to increase safety from disasters. For instance, collecting and utilizing disaster prevention information in cooperation with related organizations for accurate risk management activities, and providing information for citizens to make accurate decisions and take evacuation actions.

1) Consolidation of disaster prevention information

To enable citizens to get and utilize disaster prevention information easily, the “MLIT Disaster Prevention Information Provision Center $ ^{1} $ ” is collecting and providing rainfall information recorded by MLIT and information on disaster measures. In addition, it enables the use of accumulated data on weather, the water levels of rivers, tide levels and diastrophism with the geographic information system (GIS).