The Lower House Tuesday passed a bill aimed at strengthening disaster prevention measures in Japan’s peninsular regions.
The bill to revise the peninsular areas development law, compiled through suprapartisan discussions, was approved by a majority vote. It is centered around advancing disaster prevention efforts that take into consideration the unique geographic features of peninsulas, based on the lessons from a massive earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula last year.
It also extends the law, initially set to expire at the end of this month, by 10 years.
The Noto temblor showed that peninsular regions are prone to becoming isolated after disasters as routes into affected regions are limited.
The bill calls for promoting disaster prevention and regional revitalization in peninsular areas that are not designated by the law as regions subject to special prevention measures.
The current peninsular areas development law designates 194 municipalities in 23 regions around the country for special measures. The regions are subject to industrial promotion measures such as tax benefits.
Tuesday’s bill also expands the scope of matters that the central and local governments should bear in mind in the designated regions, such as utilizing digital technology to collect information in times of disasters and introducing emergency power supply equipment that uses renewable energy.
