As summed up by the choice of sai (meaning disaster) as the kanji of the year, Japan experienced a string of severe natural disasters last summer, ranging from big earthquakes in Osaka and Hokkaido to torrential rains that caused landslides and floods over broad areas of western Japan, a powerful typhoon that paralyzed Kansai International Airport and what was called a "disaster-level" heat wave that killed dozens of people across the country.
The government recently compiled an emergency three-year program worth ¥7 trillion to fix vulnerabilities in key infrastructure such as river embankments, roads and bridges, airports and power facilities to make them more resilient against big disasters. These efforts — which had been delayed as the government's public works spending was trimmed — are indeed necessary. But priorities need to be set on projects that require urgent action so that the government's limited financial resources can be used as efficiently as possible. Improvement must be made not only to physical infrastructure but also to operational aspects of the anti-disaster efforts — such as better communications and sharing of information with local residents to enable timely evacuations — to mitigate the impact of disasters.
In view of the havoc wreaked by the disasters this year, the government has identified 116 rivers across the country whose embankments need to be beefed up to avert flooding that could take a severe toll in human lives, and six airports located in coastal areas (Sendai, Haneda, Niigata, Kansai International, Nagasaki and Naha) whose seawalls and drainage need improving.