## 3 Securement of stable housing

The Disaster totally collapsed over 120,000 houses and partially collapsed over 240,000 houses. As of April 5, 2012 out of 344,000 evacuees, some 320,000 live in public housing, temporary housing, and private-owned apartment houses, etc.

For those out of the above evacuees who can rebuild or purchase houses on their own, arrangements were made to reduce interests on housing loans advanced by the Japan Housing Finance Agency after the Disaster, and in order to provide support for cases where only the housing lots were damaged, a housing lot loan system for reconstruction from the Disaster was established. Additionally, grace periods for a maximum period of five years or rescheduling of payments and interest reduction programs during the grace period are offered on existing loans as well.

Furthermore, since the Disaster was of such a great magnitude and a large number of public housing must be prepared promptly in the affected areas for the benefit of those victims who have difficulty building or acquiring houses on their own, the burden on municipalities associated with such preparations are lessened compared with normal times. As special assistance measures, subsidy systems for land acquisition and preparation expenses for public housings necessitated due to the Disaster, programs for reduced rent payments for especially low-income residents of such public housing,

Chart.23 Construction of public housings in the Disaster areas (As of February 21, 2012)

Prefecture	Housing lots acquired	Designing started	Construction started	Supply plans
Iwate	5 districts 217 houses	1 district 12 houses	4,000-5,000 houses
Miyagi	18 districts 1,307 houses	9 districts 812 houses	12,000 houses (15 localities)
Fukushima	4 districts 86 houses	2 districts 62 houses	1 district 12 houses	Overall plans undecided

and for developing proper private-owned rental houses to assist recovery from the Disaster in the affected areas were established. Also, conditions for admission into public housing were moderated and special measures on assignments were implemented.

Further, in light of acceleration of aging in the affected areas, support systems to build public housing for disaster victims and facilities for assisting the daily lives of senior citizens (day service facilities, visiting nurse stations, etc.) in the same premises through cooperation between municipalities and private enterprises were established, and to promote the supply of housing that offers services for elderly people, assistance was provided for relevant construction or maintenance.

Chart. 24 Mutual-help type housing for preventing elderly disaster victims from being isolated (Soma Idobata Nagaya) Public housing in the disaster area (Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture)

Source: Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture

## 4 Promotion of town reconstruction

Under the current reconstruction schemes in which measures including large-scale collective relocation to uplands and other areas are planned, there are differences in progress among municipalities. MLIT is extending the utmost support to them, maximizing its onsite abilities, comprehensive power, and readiness. Challenges facing the affected areas and steps taken to deal with them are introduced below.