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On October 18, 2019, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the eighth meeting of the Emergency Response Headquarters for Typhoon No. 19* of 2019 at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“In the affected areas, we are rapidly restoring infrastructure that serves as the foundation for rebuilding people’s lives and restoring ‘nariwai (occupations and livelihoods that sustain people's daily lives).’ Thanks to the hard work of all parties involved, we have restored power to all but a few areas which were affected by flooding, and the Chuo Expressway will be fully opened tomorrow and the Hokuriku Shinkansen line will resume its full operations from October 25. I want everyone to continue to firmly proceed step-by-step (one step at a time) towards recovery.
 
It is of the utmost importance that those affected by the disaster will leave their inconvenient lives in evacuation centers at the earliest day possible. The initiatives to use rooms in hotels and Japanese inns as secondary evacuation centers by applying the Disaster Relief Act has been started in Nagano Prefecture. In addition, as of today, we have secured approximately 4,700 rooms, including public housing, Urban Renaissance Agency (UR) housing, and National Public Officers’ housing to serve as emergency housing, and are beginning to provide these rooms to those affected one after another.
 
When I visited the affected areas in Fukushima Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture yesterday, I saw with my own eyes the massive amount of rice straw and other debris that was scattered and piled up. In response to the request from Miyagi Prefecture, we have swiftly decided that the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of the Environment will collaborate and establish a scheme to dispose of rice straw and other debris, and to extend seamless support.
 
I want everyone to listen to the voices of those affected by the disaster and continue to strive to introduce (establish) flexible and swift support measures.
 
We have been conducting assessments towards the swift designation of Typhoon No. 19 as a ‘Disaster of Extreme Severity.’ The amount of damage from the recent disaster has matched the criteria and it is expected that the designation will be made. Specifically, we will apply special measures on a nationwide basis, including raising the subsidy rate for disaster response and recovery projects focused on roads, rivers, agricultural land, facilities for joint use of the agriculture, forestry and fishery industries, and provision of disaster-related credit guarantees for small and medium-sized enterprises. We will also accelerate assessments in the remaining areas.
 
In addition, we decided today to provide a total of 31 billion yen in regular local allocation tax in advance in response to requests from 79 local governments affected by this disaster. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that the local governments affected by this disaster can work towards swift recovery without worrying about their finances.
 
In the affected areas, work to place sandbags, with the cooperation of the Self-Defense Forces, along the Chikuma River in Nagano Prefecture, the Arai River in Tochigi Prefecture, and so on to prepare for heavy rains this weekend is underway. Furthermore, we will also thoroughly ensure the safety of the public, including the early dispatch of drainage pump vehicles and the lowering of the water level standard that is required for the issuance of evacuation advisories or evacuation orders compared to the regular time, in order to prevent secondary disasters. I would like to ask the public to pay full attention to the information issued by local governments and other authorities, not let down their guard, and be mindful of evacuating early, in light of the potential danger of secondary disasters.”
 
*Typhoon Hagibis