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On August 5, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Hiroshima Prefecture to inspect the state of the damage caused by the heavy rain of July 2018.
 
The Prime Minister first visited a disaster-affected site in the Shimogouchi area, and received a written request from Mr. Hironori Takagaki, Mayor of Higashihiroshima City. Following that, Prime Minister Abe visited the Kumano Town Public Gymnasium, which is serving as an evacuation center in Kumano Town, Aki District, and listened to evacuees. Afterwards, Prime Minister Abe visited a site affected by a landslide in Saka Town.
 
Later, the Prime Minister visited a site affected by a landslide in Kure City. He then visited the Tenno Community Development Center, which is serving as an evacuation center, and listened to evacuees. Prime Minister Abe also visited the construction site for emergency temporary housing in Tenno Ohama.
 
After the visit, the Prime Minister said,
 
“Firstly, I would like to once again offer my heartfelt condolences for the victims who passed away as a result of the recent torrential rains. I would also like to express my sympathies to all those affected by this disaster.
 
Close to one month has passed since the disaster. We are seeing steady progress in the restoration of infrastructure such as roads and the water supplies, and the disposal of the large amounts of disaster-related waste produced, thanks to everyone working so hard both day and night.
 
With regard to railway lines, which are essential carriages of the residents here, good progress is also steadily being made toward the resumption of operations while the Sanyo Honsen Line and Kure Line I inspected earlier seem to take some time before they are fully restored.
 
In addition, in the Kure and Kawajiri areas where pumps had broken, all water supplies were restored by August 2, earlier than estimated. We are making steady progress on the restoration of infrastructure.
 
Nevertheless, earlier I met with people affected by the disaster and heard about their anxiety regarding the uncertainty surrounding the rebuilding of their lives and their ‘nariwai’ (occupations and livelihoods that sustain people’s daily lives). At the same time, I also heard about how difficult it is to live in evacuation centers due to the prolonged period of extreme heat that we have recently experienced. In order to secure their temporary housing, the Government will work to swiftly process applications for public housing and provisional temporary housing. We will also rapidly advance the construction of emergency temporary housing, which I observed earlier.
 
Last week, we just compiled a support package to enable everyone affected by the disaster to work with hope for the future toward rebuilding their lives and ‘nariwai,’ and to assist affected municipal governments in carrying out repair and reconstruction work with a peace of mind without worrying about their fiscal conditions.
 
As the first phase of the utilization of the contingency fund, we will immediately implement measures worth 100 billion yen, including financial support for the removal of landslide debris and rubble in towns, group subsidies for sustaining micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and measures to dispel harmful rumors of which the tourism sector is currently being alarmed.
 
Fully taking into account the issues that have emerged in relation to the serious and widespread damage that has occurred due to the recent heavy rain event, in the midst of the weather changes, and considering that Typhoon No. 13^* is drawing near, the Government will be in the necessary state of alert and exert every effort to respond to any disaster.”
 
^*Typhoon Shanshan