Japan PM meets stranded evacuees
At least 179 people have been killed in rampant floods
KURASHIKI, Japan Japans prime minister met yesterday with people forced from their homes by devastating rains that have killed at least 179 people, as the government said it would review its disaster management plans.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who cancelled a foreign trip planned for this week as the disaster worsened, met some of the thousands of people still in shelters during a trip to the flood-ravaged Okayama area.
He made no public comments, speaking briefly and privately with individuals, including an elderly lady who bowed slightly as the prime minister approached.
Dozens of people are still missing and the toll from the worst weather-related disaster in Japan in over three decades is expected to rise further.
With questions mounting about why the rains were so deadly, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said disaster management policies would be reexamined.
In recent years we have seen damage from heavy rains that is much worse than in previous years, he said.
We have to review what the government can do to reduce the risks.
Rescue efforts are beginning to wind down, nearly a week after the rains began, and hopes that new survivors could be found have faded.
Over 10,000 people are still in shelters across large parts of central and western Japan, local media said, including at a school in the town of Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture.
Around 300 people spent the night at the Okada Elementary School, many of them sleeping on blue mats laid out in the schools gym.
Hiroko Fukuda, 40, was there with her husband, but they had sent her young daughter to stay with relatives after she became so distressed by the evacuation that she stopped eating.
The family fled their home on Friday night, and returned on Monday to discover the entire ground floor had been submerged beneath floodwaters that ruined everything from electronics to photos.
Lost memories
We can accept losing things like home appliances, but memories, she said, her voice trailing off.
We cant get back photos of her at three years old, she said of her daughter.
It hurts that our memories are gone.
Among the things ruined by the flooding were Fukudas kimonos, including a furisode worn on special occasions.
I had wanted my daughter to wear it, Fukuda said, her eyes filling with tears.
The days of record rainfall transformed roads into rivers, and waves of mud swept down hillsides, carrying cars and trees with them.
In Kurashiki, the receding floods have left a layer of silt on everything that was underwater.
Crushed cars and fallen trees moved by work crews to either side of one main street formed piles of debris lining the road.
And despite the let-up in the rains, new flood warnings were still being issued yesterday.
The town of Fukuyama in Hiroshima prefecture issued an evacuation order over fears that a small lake could burst its banks.
A similar order was issued on Tuesday in the town of Fuchu, also in Hiroshima, after driftwood backed up in a river, causing water to crest over its banks and submerge surrounding neighbourhoods.
Authorities downgraded the order yesterday but warned that some risk of flooding remained. AFP
Upper house panel passes election reform
TOKYO A panel in Japans upper house passed a controversial election reform bill yesterday put on the table by Prime Minister Shinzo Abes ruling party, which would increase the number of upper chamber seats by six ostensibly to reduce disparities in the weight of votes.
The bill went through the House of Councillors panel on a majority vote by the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior ruling coalition partner the Komeito party, despite criticism it is aimed at securing the election of some incumbent LDP lawmakers in sparsely populated prefectures.
In a last-ditch effort to hamper the bills passage, opposition parties submitted a motion of no confidence against Hiroo Ishii, an LDP lawmaker who chaired the panel, which was rejected by the ruling bloc.
Although the bill, now set for a vote in the full upper house, has been criticized as going against the needs of the country whose population is rapidly declining, the LDP is seeking enactment of the legislation during the ongoing Diet session through July 22.
The bill to revise the Public Offices Election Law seeks to add six seats to the 242-seat House of Councillors in the run-up to the upper chambers next election in the summer of next year.
Under the LDP-drafted plan, two slots will be added to the electoral district in Saitama Prefecture, next to Tokyo, and four more for the proportional representation system.
The Saitama district has the highest number of voters per lawmaker in Japan and the plan is aimed at narrowing the vote weight disparities between the most and least populous constituencies to less than threefold.
The chamber was originally composed of seats elected from each of the nations 47 prefectures as well as additional seats determined by the nationwide proportional representation system. Half of the seats are up for election every three years for six-year terms. KYODO