Regarding reconstruction of urban areas damaged by tsunami resulting from the Disaster, specialist government personnel are particularly in short supply since projects to readjust land and those to accelerate collective relocation for disaster prevention are expected to account for a large portion of the overall reconstruction design, and since consensus-building among the parties concerned and coordination of differing interests require expertise and experience.

To deal with this situation, Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures and Sendai City requested MLIT to arrange long-term seconding of local government personnel from all parts of the country so that these municipalities may execute their projects. In response, MLIT requested other prefectures and government-decreed cities to check the availability of such personnel and found out from their responses that some 160 personnel from different parts of the country can be seconded. MLIT coordinated with the sending prefectures and receiving prefectures and started to second personnel in April 2012 (moving up the seconding schedule where possible).

Also, in response to requests from municipalities of the disaster areas, MLIT requested the Japan Housing Finance Agency to mobilize their specialists for providing assistance in the development of reconstruction plans, and as of February 16, 2012, 73 personnel from the Agency have been dispatched to the disaster areas and other places in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures.

Furthermore, MLIT has set up a “Human Resources Bank for Town Reconstruction” to provide the disaster areas with information on town-building specialists, which is released on the Internet as well. Thus, the information is made available to municipalities in the disaster areas, and these municipalities, local residents, and councils may easily search data on town-building specialists. As of the end of March 2012, 684 specialists are registered on the database.

## 5 Securement of local public transportation systems and promotion of tourism

(Securement and maintenance of local public transport systems)

The Disaster caused severe adverse effects on bus and other transportation systems in the affected areas, substantially changing mobility needs there, and securing of transportation systems vital for daily lives of victims accommodated in evacuation centers or temporary houses and other local residents has become a major challenge.

It is important that daily transportation in the affected areas respond to people’s needs, which vary depending on the progress of recovery and reconstruction, and such transportation must be secured without fail. To ensure that such systems in the affected areas are secured and maintained flexibly and properly through the utilization of a scheme to secure and improve local public transportation systems created in fiscal 2011, special measures were taken to moderate qualifications to receive assistance under this scheme and to make related operating procedures flexible and at the same time the necessary funds were allocated in the third supplemental budget of fiscal 2011. These measures have helped secure and maintain services of 121 main line bus routes covering multiple areas and transportation systems covering 29 individual localities. Specifically, for securement and maintenance of main line bus networks, restrictions on the number of passengers were moderated, and subsidies for acquiring buses were provided more flexibly, among other things. These steps will be continued through fiscal 2015 and for securing and maintaining daily transportation systems within different localities, such assistance programs as enabling operations of buses or taxis to respond to needs of different communities and carrying people from temporary housing and their own houses to hospitals, shops, public offices, etc., will continuously be continued through the end of fiscal 2013.

Furthermore, in order to ensure that these steps properly support approaches taken by municipalities, MLIT personnel visit the affected areas, present operating schedules taking into account the traffic conditions of temporary housing, etc., and work in coordinating the views of the parties concerned toward consensus-building.