15 Years On: Governor Says Iwate Still Faces Challenges

Morioka, Iwate Pref., Feb. 17 (Jiji Press)–Iwate Prefecture still faces a host of challenges nearly 15 years after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan, including Iwate, Governor Takuya Tasso said in an interview. “Work to restore hard infrastructure is almost finished, and people-to-people exchanges have been spreading” through road and railway reconstruction, Tasso said. He said he scores the current progress in reconstruction efforts as “64.6” out of 100 points, given a 2025 survey that showed that 64.6 pct of people living in Iwate felt progress in reconstruction. “On the other hand, we still face challenges, such as mental health care support, rebuilding people’s livelihoods, rising prices and the impact of climate change on the fisheries industry,” he said. “Reconstruction is not just about restoring things to the way they were” before the disaster, he said. “We’ll act steadily to rebuild regional communities.” Tasso said the prefectural government will promote the construction of a floodgate in the Hei River in the city of Miyako to complete infrastructure reconstruction. “We’ll ask the central government to continue with the necessary financial aid to address the challenges,” he said. Tasso also said that the prefectural government will take over projects that would either no longer receive central government aid or face an aid cut. He also said, “While the completion of work on hard infrastructure, including tsunami disaster prevention facilities, would mark a major milestone, we won’t say that that would mark an end to reconstruction.” “We, as the prefectural government, need to think in the future about how we would define an end” to reconstruction efforts, he added. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]