## (Local consensus on collective relocation)

Reconstruction plans are being developed in the disaster areas and the biggest challenge in the future is smooth coordination with residents to obtain their consents in various localities regarding specific implementation of various projects including those for accelerating collective relocation for disaster prevention and those to readjust land. Now, differences in project progress are noted among municipalities primarily due to varied extents in obtaining the residents' consents on collective relocation to uplands or inlands. The main reason is that the victims themselves are required to raise funds to purchase housing lots and build houses. Land prices in their home towns and in new locations are different, with the latter being considerably higher, which places huge burdens on the residents involved.

The national government, with a view to alleviating such burdens, has put in place such measures as (1) moderating interests including programs to reduce interest to zero for the first five years on housing loans advanced to disaster victims by the Japan Housing Finance Agency, (2) raising subsidies to match amounts corresponding to the interest on loans (from ¥4.06 million to ¥7.08 million). Among municipalities that are prime promoters of these projects, some are offering

## Problems concerning consensus building among residents (from the questionnaires to Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures)

Iwate	- Much time required to build consensus including confirmation of residents' intentions as to where they want to move and how they want to live in residential estates- Since subsidies for relocation and subsidies for alleviating interests on loans to rebuild houses differ among disaster victims due to the provisions in the projects for collective relocation for disaster prevention, in projects for enhancement of disaster prevention performances of fishing villages, etc., there is a sense of inequality among them.
Miyagi	- Purchase prices of evacuated lots (values reduced compared with pre-Disaster levels- Since the removal expenses of buildings lost or dismantled are not covered by the subsidy scheme, there is a sense of inequality within communities. - Since the wishes of land owners (including those living in other municipalities) are diverse, there are not enough municipality employees to handle them. - Since relocation to temporary housings is not arranged by administrative unit, it is all the more difficult to build consensus.
Fukushima	- In the case land properties difficult to acquire come into existence since they are to be succeeded or are currently mortgaged, much time is needed for land purchase and payments to disaster victims are delayed. - Since land property purchase scheme for relocation-advised areas is applicable only to housing lots and farmlands owned by disaster victims taking part in the project for collective relocation for disaster prevention, properties purchased/not purchased present patchy patterns, and when progress to utilize evacuated land differs from one project to another, purchases from one land owner must be made in different periods.

Source: MLIT questionnaires to the three prefectures

additional assistance to alleviate the burden on the victims. For example, Sendai City has implemented an alleviating program, which works as follows. With evaluation values of land affected by the tsunami becoming much lower than the pre-Disaster levels, when disaster victims lease land in new locations from the City and build their houses there, the rents corresponding to the sums of differences in evaluation values of affected lots before and after the Disaster and moving expenses related to lost buildings will be exempted for up to a maximum of fifty years in period and ¥10 million yen in amount. And Higashi-Matsushima City is considering an assistance program to offer housing lots in new locations free for the first ten years.

Other challenges pointed out in surveys conducted in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima include the considerable time needed to purchase existing housing lots that are mortgaged and a sense of inequality resulting from different compensation amounts paid to residents whose houses were lost and those whose houses remain.

## (Establishing organizations for project promotion)

Chart 35 shows the results of surveys conducted in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima on estimated numbers and scales of projects to readjust land and those to accelerate collective relocation for disaster prevention required to carry out town reconstruction in these prefectures respectively (as of March 1, 2012). The total land area to be readjusted in the projects of the three prefectures comes to a very large expanse of approximately 2,800 ha, which is about ten times larger than 255.9 ha in 20 areas covered under projects to readjust land for reconstruction at the time of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.

As to projects to accelerate collective relocation for disaster prevention, the total number of households to be covered in the three prefectures comes to approximately 23,300, which is about seven times larger than the approximately 3,000 households involved in the Showa Sanriku Earthquake and Tsunami (in Iwate and Miyagi), and more than 12 times larger than the cumulative total of past projects since 1972.

Chart. 35 Results of questionnaires on projects envisioned by each prefecture as of March 1, 2012

Prefecture	Land readjustment projects	Collective relocation projects for disaster prevention
No. of districts	Area (ha) (approx.)	No. of districts	No. of houses (approx.)
Iwate	24	1,000	66	4,000
Miyagi	30	1,600	158	17,300
Fukushima	8	300	44	2,100
Total	62	2,800	268	23,300
(Ref) Land readjustment projects after Hanshin -Aawai Earthquake	20	256
(Ref) Collective relocation projects (total from '72 onward)	Cumulative total 35	1,834

* The above figures are derived from the results of questionnaires to each prefecture and may differ from the actual number of projects undertaken.

$ ^{*} $ The total may differ from the aggregate of each line due to rounding of fractions.