(Promotion of projects to accelerate collective relocation for disaster prevention)

For projects to accelerate collective relocation for disaster prevention, the national government provides subsidies to cover portions of municipalities' expenditures with a view to accelerating such relocation of people living in disaster areas or sections in disaster-vulnerable areas where habitation by residents is deemed inappropriate (collectively called “relocation-advised areas”). To date, 1,834 households in 35 localities in total have been relocated, including cases undertaken in such disaster areas as the Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake that occurred in 2004 (involving 115 households), the eruption of Mt. Usu that occurred in 2000 (involving 152 households) and the Hokkaido Nansei-Oki Earthquake that occurred in 1993 (involving 55 households).

The specific scheme of these projects requires municipalities to purchase damaged housing lots, develop new lots in relocation areas, and sell or lease them to disaster victims. In addition, financial assistance is provided to disaster victims in such forms as reimbursement of relocation expenses and amounts corresponding to interests on loans for acquiring housing lots or building houses. The national government provides subsidies for these projects but regarding subsidies for purchasing housing lots in relocation-advised areas there is attached the condition that such areas must be designated as disaster-vulnerable sections in accordance with Section 1, Article 35 of the Building Standards Act and building restrictions are imposed in order to prevent the rebuilding of houses vulnerable to tsunami and other disasters on the lots.

In the Disaster areas, additional measures to assist victims have been taken, including increased amounts of subsidies for acquiring and developing lots for residential estates and for building them on such lots, provision of subsidies for acquiring and developing lots for public facilities related with residential estates and moderated qualifications to reduce the scale of residential estates at new locations from ten or more households to five or more. Further, as to expenditures eligible for subsidies, recovery grants according to the subsidy rates will be provided and additional reconstruction grants as well as special tax grants for reconstruction from the Disaster will be

Chart. 30 Implemented projects to accelerate collective relocation for disaster prevention

Year when implemented	Name of locality	Houses relocated	Cause of disaster
Prefecture	Locality
72-73	Akita	Kawabe Town	11	Jul '72 local downpour in rainy season
-ditto-	Miyazaki	Ebino City	23	Jul '72 mountain side collapse due to downpour
'73	-ditto-	Kitago Town	14	Jul '72 local downpour in rainy season
'73-74	Kumamoto	Kuratake Town	50	Jul '72 downpour in Kyushu
-ditto-	-ditto-	Himedo Town	176	Jul '72 downpour in Kyushu
-ditto-	-ditto-	Ryugatake Town	329	Jul '72 downpour in Kyushu
-ditto-	Shiga	Aito Town	59	Sep, 72 Typhoon No.20
-ditto-	Aichi	Ohara Village	22	Jul, 72 local downpour in rainy season
-ditto-	-ditto-	Fujioka Village	27	Jul, 72 local downpour in rainy season
-ditto-	Shimane	Masuda City	11	Jul, 72 cliff collapse due to downpour
'74	Yamagata	Hirata Town	16	Mar 74 mudslide
'74-75	-ditto-	Okura Village	20	Apr '74 mountain collapse
-ditto-	Tokushima	Kamiyama Town	25	Jul '74 Typhoon No.8
'75	Aomori	Sai Village	20	Jul '75 downpour
'75-76	-ditto-	Iwaki Town	16	Aug '75 downpour
'76	-ditto-	Kuroishi City	44	Aug '75 downpour
'77-78	Hyogo	Aioi City	23	Sep '76 Typhoon No. 17
-ditto-	Tokushima	Anabuki Town	70	Sep '76 Typhoon No. 17
'78-79	Fukushima	Atsumiokano Village	13	Jun-Jul '78 Mudslide due to downpour
'79	Miyagi	Sendai City	27	Jun '78 Quake off Miyagi Coast
'81-82	Hokkaido	Abuta Town	21	Aug '77 crustal change due to eruption of Mt. Usu
-ditto-	Nigata	Sumon Village	21	Jan '81 Avalanche
-ditto-	-ditto-	Nagaoka City	15	Dec '80 Mudslide
-ditto-	Aomori	Sannohe Town	12	Jun '81 downpour
'83-84	Tokyo	Miyake Village	301	Oct '83 Eruption in Miyakejima
-ditto-	Kumamoto	Matsushima Town	10	Jul '82 Mudslide
'93-95	Nagasaki	Shimabara City	90	Jun '91 Eruption of Mt. Unzen
'94	Kagoshima	Mizobe Town	12	Aug '93 heavy rain
'94-95	Hokkaido	Okushiri Town	55	Jul '93 Quake off Southwestern coast of Hokkaido
-ditto-	Nagasaki	Fukae Town	15	Jun '91 Eruption of Mt. Unzen
'96-98	-ditto-	Shimabara City	19	Jun '91 Eruption of Mt. Unzen
'01	Hokkaido	Abuta Town	152	Maar '00 Eruption of Mt. Usu
'05-'06	Niigata	Nagaoka City	27	Oct '04 Chuetsu Quake
-ditto-	-ditto-	Kawaguchi Town	25	Oct '04 Chuetsu Quake
-ditto-	-ditto-	Ojiya City	63	Oct '04 Chuetsu Quake
Total	35 localities in total	1,834

Source: MLIT

Chart. 31 Image of projects to accelerate collective relocation for disaster prevention

provided and thus there will be no financial burden on municipalities.

Since these are projects to rebuild communities through collective relocation, understanding of disaster victims and their consensus will be an important point for execution.

## (Deciding on the heights of levees)

Based on a recommendation of the “Special Investigation Committee on Measures for Quakes and Tsunami based on lessons learned from the Earthquake off the Tohoku Pacific Coast,” central disaster-prevention council, MLIT, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries indicated in July 2011, a method of setting heights of coastal levees against relatively frequent tsunamis, comprehensively considering extra rises of such tidal waves in front of the levees, utilization of the coast, environmental impact, scenery, etc. In prefectures including Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, the heights of levees as shown in the following figure have been set based on this method subsequent to briefings to the municipalities concerned. Through adjustments with utilization of backlands, etc., heights of levees will be finalized.