the Disaster Stricken Housing Land Danger Assessment Liaison Council consisting of prefectures and designated cities to evaluate the degree of danger of housing land swiftly and accurately after disaster strikes.

## (iv) Development to Improve Densely Built-Up Areas

Development activity to rapidly improve densely built-up areas that are problematic in terms of disaster prevention and the residential environment is a pressing matter to be generally resolved by ensuring a minimum level of safety for densely built-up areas that are highly vulnerable in the event of an earthquake (approximately 4,435 hectares) by FY 2020.

To realize this, fireproofing architectural structures along trunk roads to cut off fire paths and serve as evacuation paths in combination to form a skeletal disaster prevention axis (disaster prevention axis) and the development of disaster prevention parks to serve as evacuation areas, disaster

prevention block improvement projects, and integrated housing and urban development projects will be used to eliminate decrepit architecture and joint rebuilding of fireproof architecture, expansion of narrow roads to improve evacuation and firefighting efforts.

## (v) Securing Open Space

To improve disaster prevention functions and strive for safer and more comfortable town buildings, the development of disaster prevention parks is being promoted to serve as the center of restoration and reconstruction when earthquake disasters occur, center of disaster prevention as a relay hub for supplies, and as an evacuation area to protect the lives of evacuees from urban fires. A project for developing disaster-prevention parks and urban areas is being carried out to develop and upgrade disaster-prevention parks and urban areas in an integrated manner.

## (vi) Promoting Construction and Improvement of Government Buildings as Disaster Prevention Centers

Government buildings need to secure comprehensive seismic performance to ensure the safety for visitors and to be able to function fully as centers for disaster emergency activities in the occurrence of large-scale earthquakes. Therefore, MLIT is setting a target to improve their seismic resistance and promoting construction and improvement of government buildings in a systematic and prioritized way, and in FY2014, Central Government Building No.4 (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) was renovated for earthquake resistance.

## (vii) Improving the Earthquake Resistance of Public Works facilities

For river works, earthquake resistance inspections are carried out and necessary measures are implemented so that levees, floodgates, and other river structures remain functional even under what is referred to as level 2 seismic movement.

For coastal works, earthquake resistance measures are promoted taking into account facility functions, degrees of importance of areas behind levees and other factors to prevent large-scale submergence of zero-meter areas due to damage to levees caused by earthquakes and to prevent the functions of levees and other protective facilities from being impaired before arrival of tsunamis when earthquakes such as the earthquakes along Nankai Trough occurs.

For road works, to ensure smooth emergency and rescue activities, transport emergency supplies, and deploy emergency transport essential to recovery efforts when earthquake disasters occur, seismic strengthening of bridges and undergrounding of cables are implemented to important roads, such as emergency transport roads. In seeking to eliminate utility poles, according to the amendment of Road Act and other acts on June 2013, a system to enable road administrators to ban and restrict exclusive use and a system to enable the national government to provide interest-free loans to power-cable