fishing villages, and settlements. Making full use of local history, culture and lifestyle, the exhibition focuses on the people who live in that region. Furthermore, starting March 2012, we have begun the full-scale promotion of the “Kanto & North Kanto Visiting Campaign” which supports the recovery of Kanto and the North Kanto regions through visitation. Aiming to expand the scale of solidarity, we are widely requesting the cooperation of local citizens by collecting and disseminating information on activities of endorsing organizations on the Japan Tourism Agency homepage.

## Section 5 Ensuring the Smooth Execution of Reconstruction Projects

In the execution of recovery and reconstruction projects of disaster sites, we are faced with the task of attaining the smooth execution in light of the increasing number of projects failing to acquire contractors in competitive tender bids. To deal with such circumstances, the MLIT organized the “Liaison Council for Smooth Execution of Recovery and Reconstruction Projects” in December 2011 and held the “Reconstruction Acceleration Meeting” in March 2011 for discussion between state officials and relevant individuals of local public organizations from disaster affected areas. Through these activities, information on the current situations and views as to how to respond to them were exchanged, and it was confirmed that the parties would take necessary steps including securing human resources required for reconstruction, and development of proper integration values reflecting the actuality of price estimates of contracts. Concretely, we are proceeding to implement CPM $ ^{Note1} $ to speed up reconstructive city development and the Reconstruction JV System $ ^{Note2} $ for swiftly securing technical experts on larger scale for shorthanded disaster sites.

### Section 6 Recovery, Reconstruction, and Etc. of Fukushima

After the occurrence of Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Reactor disaster, refugees from the evacuation zones topped approximately 84 thousand individuals, while total number of refugees in the Fukushima prefecture, including self-imposed evacuees, climbed to approximately 154 thousand individuals (according to studies by the Reconstruction Agency). The government is faced with the need to hasten the recovery of infrastructures and services related to livelihood, the progress of decontamination work, and the maintenance in creating an environment desirable to return to. The MLIT strives to actualize the soonest possible return of those in evacuation through efforts such as reconstructing infrastructures, implementing measures for the toll-free use of expressways for refugees and overcoming harmful rumors in accord to the “Plan for Early Return and Settlement” and the “Package of Measures against the Effect of the Nuclear Disaster including the Reputational Damage from Harmful Rumors” established in March 2013.

## Section 7 Developing Tsunami-resistant Communities learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake

Learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake, “Act concerning the Development of Tsunami Resistant Communities” was enacted and enforced in December of 2011. According to the principle of “Human life is most important,” this law promotes a development of tsunami-resistant communities based on the concept of multiple defenses which combines infrastructure development and other forms of measures targeting the largest class tsunami.

In 2012, the MLIT supported local governments by providing the technical advice related to the enforcement of the aforementioned law as well as guide concerning the assumptions of inundation by tsunami. The government also established consultation services and exchanged opinions with prefectures.

As a result, since August 2012, 5 prefectures, Ibaraki, Aomori (partial), Tokushima, Kochi and Miyazaki have set assumptions of inundation by tsunami targeting the largest scale tsunamis (up to March 2013).