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On July 6, 2020, the Prime Minister held the second meeting of the Emergency Headquarters for the Heavy Rain in July 2020 at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“Firstly of all, heavy rains continues to fall intermittently in Kyusyu and many other places all around Japan. At 4:30 this afternoon, heavy rain emergency warnings were issued in Fukuoka, Saga, and Nagasaki Prefectures. I urge people living in these three prefectures should pay close attention to evacuation advisories from local authorities and take early actions to protect their own lives.

I ask all those present in this meeting to continue to provide timely and appropriate information to the public regarding evacuation, the status of heavy rains and rivers. In the areas where damage has occurred, I want the government to work in close coordination with local governments and unite as one in making all-out efforts to respond to the emergency, with human life as the highest priority.

In Kumamoto prefectures and other disaster-affected areas, Japan Coast Guard and Self Defense Forces units continue to conduct all-out rescue and relief activities around the clock. I ask them to exert every effort to rescue people from houses and other locations that have become cut off and to search for those who are missing.

As for the banks of the Kuma River that burst, today temporary embankments were completed through the round-the-clock response of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s Technical Emergency Control FORCE (TEC-FORCE). Thanks to drainage pump vehicles dispatched from across the country, flood waters in the city of Hitoyoshi have on the whole dissipated. Nevertheless, we will continue to conduct drainage activities without letting down our guard.

Support for the daily lives of those affected by the disaster is also essential. Through push-mode support from the Team to Support the Rebuilding of Disaster Victims’ Daily Lives and Livelihoods, water and food, cardboard beds, partitions, and other supplies have already delivered to the disaster-affected areas, and air conditioning units and simple provisional toilets are also on their way. We must continue to make our utmost efforts to provide support that anticipates the needs of the disaster-affected areas.

In order to swiftly restore the disaster-affected areas going forward, it is imperative that we create the conditions under which the local governments of the disaster-affected areas are able to exert every effort in restoration efforts, without undue worry over how to finance them. From such a standpoint, I want the government to expeditiously disburse ordinary local allocation tax earlier than scheduled. Moreover, the surveys for designating this as a ‘Disaster of Extreme Severity’ should be conducted expeditiously and, for any areas meeting the criteria, the prospect for designation should be announced promptly.

The seasonal rain front stays stationary from western into eastern Japan through to approximately July 8, potentially bringing heavy rains to extensive areas. I urge the public, and of course people of the disaster-affected areas, and those in Fukuoka, Saga, and Nagasaki Prefectures, where the emergency warnings were issued, to pay close attention to information from local authorities and take actions to protect your own lives without letting their guard down.”