» Saitama did not know 2400 people taking shelter from Fukushima

2014/07/30

The Saitama Prefectural government was unaware of about 2,400 people taking shelter in the region after evacuating from Fukushima Prefecture following the nuclear crisis, it has been learned.

It found out about the omission after asking all municipalities in the prefecture earlier in July about the number of evacuees they host from the nuclear disaster. The prefectural government had previously tallied the number of only those who lived in temporary housing units it and some municipalities under its jurisdiction provides free of charge. It regularly asked only some of the local bodies about the number of evacuees.

The Reconstruction Agency said it will urge other prefectural governments to release all available figures.

The prefectural government’s fire and disaster management division asked all the 63 municipalities in the prefecture on July 8 about the number of evacuees they host. After tallying the figures, the prefectural government revised upward the number of evacuees from 2,640 as of June to 5,044.

Of them, the prefectural government reported 2,992 evacuees, including those who it newly confirmed were living in public housing, to the Reconstruction Agency as a provisional figure.

About 2,400 evacuees who have been newly confirmed are mostly those who have voluntarily evacuated to the prefecture following the outbreak of the nuclear disaster. The figure is expected to further increase, and many unconfirmed evacuees may not receive administrative information such as on healthcare and education and measures to support evacuees.
<Media Report>

Saitama was unaware of 2,400 Fukushima evacuees living in prefecture (Mainichi Newspaper)

Tags:evacuation, japanese government, news

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