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On July 17, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the ninth meeting of the Emergency Response Headquarters for the Heavy Rain in July 2018 at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“To ramp up efforts to rebuild the lives of the affected people while the extreme heat continues, it is important for them to move from the evacuation centers into residences where their privacy and other means are secured, as soon as possible. To that end, even for the people affected whose homes have been partly destroyed, in cases where they cannot live in their own residence due to landslides and driftwood brought in by the flood, I would like to let the affected prefectures to allow these victims to move into emergency temporary housing just like other victims whose homes have been completely destroyed, without consulting with the Government. I would also like to ask you to make all relevant parties and those affected informed on this.
 
In addition, through the strenuous work by all those who were affected and the cooperation of many volunteers, we are gradually making progress in cleaning up the affected housings. At the same time, the disposal of disaster-related waste generated by these efforts is also becoming a pressing issue. Garbage collection vehicles dispatched from eight cities including Osaka City and Fukuoka City, as well as heavy machinery from the Self-Defense Forces (SDF), have been deployed in the removal and transportation of this waste in cooperation with private-sector operators in the neighboring areas, as the combined efforts of the public and private sectors. With regard to Mabi Town, where a large volume of disaster-related waste has been generated, we have dispatched an additional 1,000 SDF personnel and 70 dump trucks today to further accelerate the disposal of this waste.
 
I will continue to devote every effort for implementing emergency response and recovery work in the affected areas, rebuilding the lives of those affected, and restoring ‘nariwai’ (occupations and livelihoods that sustain people's daily lives) at the earliest possible date, from the standpoint of the people affected and following through with the front-line approach. I would like to ask for your continued cooperation and efforts.”