“Japanese government should restrict living in tsunami affected area because of following three reasons; prioritizing the life of citizens, the cost that could be possibly burdened, the incredibility of Japan in the world especially for economic aspect.”

Firstly, Japanese government should prioritize the life of citizens. First of all, losing citizen means losing the national treasure which can support a national prosperity, so Japanese government must give the highest priority to protecting the life of citizens. Moreover, according to the Act for establishment of the Cabinet office (based on Article 4), government takes responsibility for preventing damages which will be caused by disaster. In addition, followed by the Building standard law (Article 39, 84), local government can restrict to build new buildings in dangerous areas. In fact, Hyuga, the area where recent earthquake impacted, experienced M7.0 or bigger quakes that have 5 times as much magnitude for the last 70 years. Finally, there is no doubt about security of human lives because everybody knows deep sorrow of missing his or her family and friends and no one want other disasters to take away their loved ones.

Secondly, Japanese government needs to consider about the cost that could be possibly burdened if tsunami should attack the coastal areas. The cost varies from many aspects. It takes huge cost to recover from disaster, such as costs of reconstructing infrastructures including the residential areas, evacuation, preventing damage caused by natural disaster. In fact, it cost over 20 trillion yen to recover from the earthquake which hit Tohoku region this year. This number counts for more than 20 percentage of annual government budget. Furthermore, if Japanese government is blamed for neglecting to take a necessary step to protect citizen’s life, a large amount of compensation must be paid for the surviving members of deceased persons’ family.

Finally, inappropriate policy of Japanese government possibly causes the incredibility of Japan in the world especially for economic aspect. This means that, if the failure of countermeasures against natural disasters should trigger credit uncertainty of Japanese government bonds, it might cost unexpectedly to issue bonds. Moreover, in the worst case, there won’t be any buyers for Japanese government bonds, and this means a financial crisis. (Group: Takahiro, Momoko, Shota, Akane)