Hiromasa Nakano, Japan’s new land, infrastructure, transport and tourism minister, vowed Wednesday to secure a “necessary and sufficient” budget for measures to strengthen the country’s resilience to natural disasters.
“Improving the country’s resilience is an extremely important task,” Nakano said in an interview.
“We will secure a necessary and sufficient budget for fiscal 2025,” the final year of the government’s five-year plan to boost related efforts, he added.
The minister also indicated that the government will promptly draw up a new program for fiscal 2026 and beyond.
Nakano, a member of Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, took office after his predecessor, Tetsuo Saito, became leader of Komeito.
Nakano expressed his willingness to visit areas stricken by major natural disasters this year, including the Noto Peninsula, which was hit by an earthquake on Jan. 1.
“No matter how good the government’s policies are, the most important thing is whether these policies reach the (disaster-hit) areas,” he noted.
Regarding the serious labor shortage in the construction industry, Nakano stressed the need to promote work style reform, such as setting a construction schedule that does not assume long work hours, and to ensure adequate wages for workers.
