Lack of Media Coverage Concern for Some Quake-Hit Kumamoto Areas

Kumamoto, Sept. 2 (Jiji Press)–While a shopping mall explosion and areas struggling with water outages following a massive earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture in late July have made major headlines, people in some quake-affected areas in the southwestern Japan prefecture are concerned about the lack of media coverage on their damage. There have been differences among areas in the amount of donations collected under the “furusato nozei” tax program and in the number of disaster relief volunteers who came in, officials said. Thirty-eight people have died in the July 28 earthquake, according to the Kumamoto prefectural government. Of them, nine were killed after a chimney collapsed at a paper plant in the city of Yatsushiro and seven in the shopping mall explosion in the town of Kashima. The cities of Uki and Yatsushiro and the town of Hikawa went without running water for about a month. In Misato, a town that neighbors Uki and Yatsushiro, about 30 pct of households suffered damage to their homes while there were no fatalities. Many homes in the Shimobaru district had red stickers indicating that it was dangerous for people to enter. At the home of Fumio Watanabe, 73, in the district, the roof of the entrance has collapsed and most of the walls have fallen. While he, together with his wife, has been trying to clean up the rubble, a disappointed Watanabe said, “We can’t live here anymore.” Voicing concerns about the local government’s handling of the disaster, Watanabe said, “We need to make sure our area is not left behind” in the reconstruction process. The Misato town government pins high hopes on furusato nozei donations as a source of funding for its reconstruction efforts. But the amount of disaster relief donations to Misato under the program totaled only 20 million yen as of Aug. 24, a stark contrast to a municipality that has garnered several hundred million yen. Misato Mayor Yasuhiro Ueda said that support is affected by whether media outlets have covered stories on the earthquake damage to a particular area. “We hope people know that there are overlooked areas that are out of the spotlight.” Some parts of the city of Kumamoto, the capital of the prefecture, also face a similar issue. In Minami Ward, road cracks and ground liquefaction have hit many narrow alleys. While the foundations of many homes have crumbled and pillars have collapsed, the serious damage done by the temblor is obscured from the outside by walls and foliage. “Our area hasn’t been covered (by the media) as much as Yatsushiro and Hikawa, likely because it’s hard to see the damage here,” said Yoichi Araki, a 75-year-old resident of the ward. On the impact of the scarce media coverage on the damage done to the ward, Kumamoto Mayor Kazufumi Onishi at a press conference on Aug. 18 said, “There were cases in which (the ward) fell outside the prime focus of support, including volunteers.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]