The Japanese government on Friday urged municipalities to have makeshift beds and partitions at disaster evacuation centers as soon as such centers are set up, based on lessons learned from the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake.
The measure, aimed at improving living conditions at evacuation centers, is featured in a revision to the government’s basic disaster reduction plan adopted at a meeting of the government’s Central Disaster Management Council.
Some evacuation centers did not use cardboard beds following the magnitude 7.6 quake mainly due to difficulties changing the facility layouts, according to the government.
The revised basic disaster reduction plan says that local governments should make active use of cardboard beds.
It also calls for setting up sanitary facilities such as mobile “toilet trailers,” designed with sanitary and crime prevention considerations in mind, in addition to the swift construction of temporary toilets.
It underscores the need for disaster response preparations in regions with aging communities, such as areas that were struck by the Noto Peninsula earthquake.
Local governments are asked to coordinate with public health nurses, welfare workers and nonprofit organizations before disasters so that they can learn about residents in ordinary times and to consider how much personal information to share with such actors in times of disasters.
For the first time, the revised plan also includes measures to be taken for evacuees remaining in their homes and those staying in vehicles, which was a problem in past disasters such as the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the 2016 Kumamoto temblors.
Local governments are urged to set up aid facilities for those evacuating at home and space for those evacuating in their vehicles, and to collect information on the number of such evacuees and the amount of necessary aid supplies to support them.