Ishiba underscores importance of National Disaster Management Agency

The National Disaster Management Agency should play a key role in building institutional expertise and developing specialized personnel for disaster preparedness and responses, former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said.

The country needs to make the agency “capable of accumulating and passing on knowledge and experience” of disaster management, Ishiba, who advocated its creation, said in a recent interview with Jiji Press.

The Cabinet Office’s disaster management section, the predecessor of the new agency, was staffed by officials seconded from multiple agencies who typically rotate every two years. This system did not allow officials to accumulate or pass on knowledge or experience, Ishiba said.

He called for enhanced training for local government leaders and officials to strengthen disaster preparedness and emergency response efforts at a planned disaster management academy.

“Local leaders with knowledge can issue appropriate instructions and provide accurate information even when false information spreads on social media,” he said.

Ishiba criticized Japan’s disaster response system. “It has changed little since the Great Kanto Earthquake,” he said, referring to the 7.9-magnitude temblor that left about 105,000 people dead or missing in Tokyo and nearby areas in 1923.

“I’ve never seen evacuees sleeping side by side on gymnasium floors in a decent country,” he said.

To improve conditions at evacuation centers, Ishiba called for systematic stockpiling of emergency toilets, cooking facilities and beds as well as better organization of volunteer activities.