TOKYO: The Disaster Management Agency, a new disaster-response organisation, is expected to be launched as early as November.
The agency will serve as the government’s central command centre and will be responsible for promoting measures to mitigate damage from disasters such as earthquakes and heavy rain.
However, questions remain over its effectiveness, personnel development and other issues.
“By promoting thorough disaster-prevention measures in advance, we will minimise damage from events such as a Nankai Trough earthquake,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said.
Takaichi has emphasised the importance of establishing the new agency during the current Diet session.
The establishment of the Disaster Management Agency was first proposed by former prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, who set up an office to examine its organisational structure shortly after becoming prime minister in October 2024.
The Takaichi administration took over the initiative after Ishiba stepped down.
The Disaster Management section is currently part of the Cabinet Office.
It will become independent of the Cabinet Office and be reorganised as the new agency.
The agency will comprise four divisions: comprehensive policy, disaster response, disaster-prevention planning and regional disaster prevention.
Its main focus will be preparing for disasters and mitigating their impact.
Disaster risks will be assessed in each region to identify vulnerabilities and determine priority measures.
Where weaknesses are not adequately addressed, the agency will have the authority to issue recommendations urging the relevant ministries and government bodies to take action.
Although the recommendations will not be legally binding, ministries and agencies will be required to give them due consideration.
The Cabinet Office’s Disaster Management section previously served as a coordinator among the relevant ministries and agencies.
Once the new agency is established, it will take on a stronger leadership role across the government.
The agency will have 352 staff, 60 per cent more than the section’s current workforce of 220, to strengthen its response capabilities.
The expansion follows problems encountered after the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January 2024, when the section became so overwhelmed coordinating the transportation of relief supplies that a review of projected damage from a Nankai Trough earthquake was suspended for several months.
Concerns have also been raised that the Cabinet Office’s Disaster Management section has been unable to build up sufficient expertise because many of its staff are seconded from other ministries and return to their original workplaces after several years.
For this reason, the Disaster Management Agency will also recruit permanent staff.
It is considering establishing a “disaster management academy” to train agency staff and local government officials.
Following a disaster, affected local governments have had to coordinate separately with different ministries and agencies over matters such as road repairs and disaster-waste disposal, placing a considerable burden on municipal officials.
The Disaster Management Agency aims to provide a one-stop consultation service.
An official from the disaster-prevention division of the municipal government in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, which was affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake, welcomed the move.
“If the agency becomes the point of contact, it will make it easier for local governments to seek advice, even during non-emergency periods,” the official said.
One challenge will be ensuring that the agency’s recommendations are effective.
The agency will not be able to make recommendations requiring the Finance Ministry to provide additional funding.
“Without strong fiscal measures from the central government to address weaknesses in disaster response, this [the Disaster Management Agency] will amount to nothing more than ‘a pie in the sky’,” Katsuya Onishi, mayor of Kuroshio in Kochi Prefecture, said at a House of Councillors Special Committee on Disasters meeting on June 19.
A tsunami of up to 34 metres is projected to strike Kuroshio in the event of a Nankai Trough earthquake.
Onishi urged the government to give the agency the authority to issue budgetary recommendations to the Finance Ministry.
In response, Reconstruction Minister Takao Makino, who is also responsible for preparations to establish the Disaster Management Agency, said at another committee meeting on June 26: “We are not considering giving [the agency] the authority to make recommendations regarding the budget formulation process itself.” - Japan News/ANN
A senior Cabinet Office official said: “Budget formulation must be considered together with funding sources, but interfering in that process goes beyond the scope of disaster management.”
Staffing also remains a concern.
While 46 of the agency’s 352 positions have been filled by “hometown disaster-prevention officers” recruited from the private sector and local governments, those positions will generally need to be refilled every three years when the officers’ terms expire.
The agency is expected to recruit only about 15 permanent staff members during the next fiscal year.
“The Disaster Management Agency has to look at the entire country as a whole, determine what is needed and formulate strategies,” said Yu Hiroi, a professor of urban disaster prevention at the University of Tokyo.
“Each ministry and agency must then carefully consider those decisions, including those involving budgetary measures.
“Another question is how to secure and develop personnel capable of formulating strategies based on specialised expertise.”
