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On July 7, 2020, the Prime Minister held the third 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,

“With heavy rains continuing to fall in the Kyushu region, new damage has occurred including from the overflowing of the Chikugo River in the city of Hita, Oita Prefecture. While all-out rescue activities by police, firefighters, and Japan Coast Guard and Self-Defense Forces have been underway in the disaster-affected areas since immediately after the disaster began, damage has been increasing in scale over a wide area of Kyushu between yesterday and today. We are now engaged in response activities at an expanded scale of 80,000 personnel, prioritizing human life above all else.  In those areas, rising waters and landslides have cut off roads, leaving a large number of communities isolated. We must continue our utmost efforts to rescue and provide support for disaster victims in that situation, as well as to search for those missing. In the disaster-affected areas, the needs for assistance such as bathing support, meals, and the like are being increasing.  Moving forward, we intend to be fully prepared for assistances to disaster victims and other responses, by expanding the number of SDF personnel to the scale of 20,000 personnel with additional 10,000. Today, I again dispatched Minister Takeda, minister in charge of disaster management, to the affected areas, making our responses fully prepared.

Providing support for the daily lives of the disaster victims is a matter of urgency. Through push-mode supports, some 90,000 food and beverage items, 1,000 cardboard beds, as well as 800 partitions, 150 spot coolers, 3,000 instant coolant packs and other items have already arrived in the affected areas by today. In the disaster-affected areas, a tremendous amount of disaster-related waste and also earth and sediment is being generated. Removing these at the earliest possible time will be the first step towards the disaster victims rebuilding their lives. I instruct the SDF to advance support to remove them, collaborating with the local governments. Moreover, I want the government to obtain supports from local authorities surrounding the affected areas and accelerate the collection, removal, and the processing with neighboring areas of those waste. Moreover, with a view to firmly backing actions of the disaster victims towards rebuilding their daily lives, I want the government to accelerate its review to designate this event as a ‘specific extraordinary disaster,’ while assessing a series of damages caused by this heavy rain. There are currently more than 150 staff from the national government in the affected areas, responding to the disaster. I ask you to continue to accurately assess the local needs and exert every effort to provide government-wide support for all those affected by the disaster.

Although heavy rain emergency warnings have been replaced by heavy rain warnings, the seasonal rain front will remain stationary near Honshu until at least around July 9, there is the possibility of heavy rains falling over a wide area. I urge the public to continue to pay close attention to information from local authorities and take early actions to protect their own lives without letting their guard down. I also ask all of you to continue to be mindful of those affected and put in place all necessary measures ahead of time, collaborating closely with local governments in the affected areas.”