## Response of the MLIT immediately after the earthquake struck

Immediately after the earthquake struck, the government established a headquarters for major disaster countermeasures to comprehensively coordinate disaster emergency measures undertaken by relevant organizations.

The MLIT also set up an emergency system concurrent to the occurrence of the earthquake at 21:26 on April 14, 2016. After a headquarters for major disaster countermeasures was established under the auspices of the MLIT at 22:10 on the same day, the first meeting of the headquarters for major disaster countermeasures was held at 23:00 on the same day. As of May 19, 2016, a total of twenty meetings of the headquarters for major disaster countermeasures have been held.

The MLIT has been helping to facilitate disaster recovery efforts and providing support for the rebuilding of lives since the earthquake struck, such as by checking the status of damage sustained, dispatching TEC-FORCE (Technical Emergency Control Force) personnel, reinforcing evacuation systems through a lowering of the threshold for issuing a sediment-disaster alert, providing daily commodities, and securing temporary housing. Specifically, these efforts have consisted of the following:

## (1) Surveying the damage caused to facilities under the jurisdiction of the MLIT

The damage caused to roads, rivers, dams, ports and harbors, airports, sewage systems, governmental facilities, and other facilities was promptly investigated. Immediately after the disaster struck, patrol vessels and aircraft were dispatched to survey the damage along coastal areas and elsewhere and provide information to nearby vessels through the issuance of navigation warnings and other means.

## (2) Support provided by TEC-FORCE (emergency disaster measures contingent) personnel for local governments affected by the disaster

The MLIT dispatched liaison personnel to local governments affected by the disaster beginning overnight on April 14 immediately after the magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck overnight on April 14, 2016. On the fifteenth, TEC-FORCE personnel attached to the Kyushu, as well as Kinki, Chugoku, and Shikoku Regional Development Bureaus, and the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan arrived in Kyushu and began taking action. Up to sixty one liaisons from Regional Development Bureaus nationwide from Hokkaido to Okinawa for a total of 1,617 person-days as well as up to 440 TEC-FORCE members for a total of 8,183 person-days (preliminary numbers as of May 16 of the same year) were dispatched to seventeen municipalities to provide support to local governments affected by the disaster.

## (Conducting disaster surveys on behalf of local governments)

Specifically, disaster surveys were promptly conducted on behalf of local governments to supplement information on the disaster and on support needs ascertained by liaisons and interpretations of aerial photographs taken of the affected areas to help contribute to a shortening of the time required to designate this event as a serious disaster.

## (Emergency inspections of sites at risk of suffering a sediment-related disaster)

In order to prevent secondary damage caused by aftershocks or rainfall, 1,155 sites at high risk of suffering a sediment-related disaster were inspected in nine days. The governor of Kumamoto and the mayors of thirteen concerned municipalities were apprised of the results and advised on what actions should be taken going forward.

## (Support provided by advisors concerning measures to deal with sediment-related disasters)

With many cases of sediment-related disasters occurring in the wake of the earthquake, advice on sediment-related disasters was sought by local governments. In response, a team of advisors in charge of measures to deal with sediment-related disasters was established. By having engineers belonging to the MLIT with expertise on sediment-related disasters provide advice at a local level in response to requests made by local governments and relevant organizations, we helped ensure the safety of search activities.

## (Securing transportation routes by eliminating road obstacles)

We carried out emergency recovery work on prefectural and municipal roads blocked by subsidence and landslides of earth and sand to reopen transportation routes going from Kumamoto-shi towards Minami-Aso and otherwise secured