• 
• 
• 

 
On August 2, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 16th Meeting of the Emergency Response Headquarters for the Heavy Rain in July 2018 at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
The Prime Minister received a written request from Mr. Hidehiko Yuzaki, Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, Mr. Ryuta Ibaragi, Governor of Okayama Prefecture, and Mr. Tokihiro Nakamura, Governor of Ehime Prefecture.
 
The Prime Minister said in his address,
 
“Just now, Governor Yuzaki of Hiroshima Prefecture, Governor Ibaragi of Okayama Prefecture, and Governor Nakamura of Ehime Prefecture gave us a briefing on the damages from the recent heavy rain as well as their requests.
 
Taking this opportunity, I would like to once again pray for peace for the souls of those who lost their lives in the recent heavy rain and offer my sympathy to everyone who has been affected.
 
I also want to offer my heartfelt respect for everyone’s hard work in diligently responding to the emergency recovery since the disaster struck, including the three governors.
 
Almost one month has passed since the disaster, and there are still 11 people missing. We will continue to exert every effort in the search activities. While steady progress is being made with the restoration of infrastructure, such as roads and water service, as well as the disposal of the large amounts of disaster-related waste thanks to the efforts of all those involved, many people living in the affected areas are still being forced to live hard lives as evacuees, full of concern, given the heat wave and extraordinary typhoons.
 
Particularly, there are serious concerns over the uncertainty with regard to restoring their ‘nariwai (occupations and livelihoods that sustain people’s daily lives).’ I also directly heard from farmers and business owners their moving feelings. The Government is dedicating its full efforts to providing strong support for helping the affected people in the agricultural, forestry and fishery businesses, as well as micro, small and medium-sized enterprises rebuild.
 
Under the Team to Support the Daily Lives of Disaster Victims, relevant ministries and agencies have shared their knowledge and compile an assistance package for rebuilding lives and restoring ‘nariwai’ in the affected areas.
 
Using the contingency fund, we will implement these measures at a scale of 100 billion yen.
 
Specifically, this involves; swift removal of sediment in cities, in particular, financial assistance on par with the Kumamoto Earthquake to dispose of debris; provision of support grants for reconstructing livelihoods of disaster victims to affected households whose homes have been totally destroyed; establishment of reach-out supports including up to three-fourths of subsidies using group subsidies for continuity of business for affected small and medium-sized enterprises; sustained subsidies to broadly support individual businesses; a comprehensive assistance for agricultural, forestry, and fishery businesses to sustain or swiftly resume their businesses, including assistance of 230,000 yen per 10 ares to defray costs related to the replanting of citrus fruit trees; assistance equivalent to 6,000 yen discount per night per person to use for accommodations during the summer vacation season aiming at warding off harmful rumors in the tourism industry. We have compiled these emergency measures, which also thoroughly meet the requests from the governors of three prefectures.
 
From the standpoint of immediately implementing these measures, the Minister of Finance will spearhead efforts to enable us to allocate a total of 105.8 billion yen from the contingency funds and the Cabinet will approve it tomorrow.
 
Under this package, we will put various measures, which is necessary, as needed, with a sense of urgency.
 
The Government exert its fullest efforts to the recovery and reconstruction of the affected areas, working together with affected prefectures and municipalities so that those affected can rebuild their lives, looking ahead with hope for the future, and so affected municipalities can engage in restoration and reconstruction with peace of mind without worrying about their fiscal conditions or budgetary matters. We will implement measures together with all of you that will give people in the affected areas hope for tomorrow. We would like to ask for your continued cooperation and efforts.”