Mr. Katsuhiko Niwa, former Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, was appointed Deputy Director General of the Cabinet Secretariat (Assistant Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary) of the National Resilience Promotion Office on July 1, said in an interview with the press. Nikkan Kensetsu Kogyo Shimbun, Regarding the mid-term implementation plan formulated by the government based on the law, he expressed interest in reviewing the mid-term implementation plan and said: "The power of natural disasters is increasing. We must resolutely take countermeasures." He also stressed the importance of responding to infrastructure that is about to be renewed and the ability of the construction industry to quickly respond to disasters as a "responsible member of the local community."
Mr. Niwa
The medium-term implementation plan is the successor to the “Five-Year Accelerated Measures for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Recovery and National Resilience,” which has a final year of 2025. The government explicitly stated in the Basic Policy for Economic and Financial Reform and Governance 2024 (a solid policy) decided in June that it would ``start formulating this policy as soon as possible.'' At a liaison meeting of relevant ministries and agencies on July 30, it was confirmed that formulation would begin after reviewing and evaluating the current measures.
Regarding the development of a medium-term implementation plan, Deputy Director-General Niwa said, ``Reviewing the existing measures (the five-year acceleration measures) is one of the processes. We are actually in the process of developing them.'' He stated his intention to proceed with the development of a medium-term implementation plan, taking into account changes since the time of development and the severity of natural disasters.
As recovery and reconstruction efforts continue following the Noto Peninsula earthquake, there are concerns that more major earthquakes may occur. He pointed out that “preparation is necessary” and said of his aspirations, “I have come up with the idea of creating a mid-term implementation plan. I am very humble.” Including the disaster prevention and mitigation measures taken before the current five-year acceleration measures, he said, “The effectiveness of the measures has been confirmed, no damage has occurred even in disasters of similar scale,” and he is reviewing the mid-term implementation plan from various perspectives. He expressed his intention to proceed.
Considering this, he also said that with the decline in the working-age population, ``improving efficiency through digital transformation and new technologies also need to be adopted by infrastructure managers.'' With the rising costs of raw materials, equipment and labor, the company said that the scale and cost of procurement are issues to consider, noting that ``for the same amount of money, the volume of business will decrease.''
It is expected that the planning phase will be established based on the reality of infrastructure development projects, which take a long time to complete.
Concerned about the decline in the number of civil engineering workers, the government is looking to train workers who can take on multiple frontline roles in emergencies. On the construction industry, which is responsible for emergency response, recovery and reconstruction, he said, ``We need to think about how to retain local contractors. The public and the industry will need to come up with ideas.''
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