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[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the twelfth meeting of the Emergency Response Headquarters for the Earthquake Centered in the Kumamoto Region of Kumamoto Prefecture 2016 at the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the meeting, reports and discussions were held on the situation pertaining to damage and the response of each ministry and agency.

Based on the reports and discussion in the meeting, the Prime Minister said,

“Since this morning heavy rains have continued to fall on the affected areas. In particular, we must be wary of landslides in areas where the ground has loosened. As search teams engage in rescue work, I would like them to continue to pay attention to the prevention of secondary disasters.

At evacuation centers and elsewhere, we face the urgent task of helping to alleviate the worries and stress of those affected. We will continue to provide medicine, simple beds, and temporary toilets, among other supplies, and step up visits and check-ups by medical teams.

Now that one week has passed since the disaster began, the most important task facing us is to move those people who have lost their homes, or who feel uneasy about returning to their homes, from the restricted conditions of living in evacuation centers or out of vehicles, to housing where they can feel peace of mind, as soon as possible.

Thanks to the full-fledged support of associations of hotels and ryokans (traditional Japanese inns), we are now making preparations for those affected by the disaster, primarily people in poor health, seniors, expectant mothers and families with small children, to stay in ryokans or hotels. We plan to steadily relocate these people from evacuation centers to ryokans and other facilities, starting today.

At the same time, Kumamoto Prefecture, Kumamoto City, and others have begun accepting residents for public housing in the prefecture. With the cooperation of each prefecture and many municipalities in Kyushu we have secured more than 2,500 public housing units. We have also secured around 1,500 private rental units within Kumamoto Prefecture. These units will be provided to those in need as quickly as possible once local governments have helped to confirm the buildings are free of damage and safe.

We will continue to exert our utmost efforts, with the Team to Support the Daily Lives of Disaster Victims taking the lead, and the cooperation of the Housing Support Team  set up by Kumamoto Prefecture, as well as the affected municipalities, and neighboring municipalities.

To facilitate the flow of funds for these responses, today, we have boosted the provision of ordinary grant tax funds for Kumamoto Prefecture and 16 municipalities in the prefecture to 42.1 billion yen. These funds will be distributed tomorrow immediately.

Locally, a large number of volunteers continue to pour into the area. Together with their help, we will continue to provide maximum support in various forms from the perspective of those affected by this disaster.”