Leveraging the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake to Create a Turning Point
- Creating an inclusive society in which no one excludes or is excluded -

Noboru Imamura
Japan National Assembly of Disabled Peoples' International (DPI-Japan)

Introduction

On March 14,2011,three days after the Great East Japan Earthquake,DPI-Japan,Japan Council on Independent Living Centers (JIL),Yumekaze Fund,Kyodoren,and Network to Promote Inclusive Education (Inclunett) launched the Relief Headquarters for Persons with Disabilities of Tohoku-Kanto Great Earthquake (Headquarters) at the behest of some leaders including Satoru Misawa (Chairperson of DPI-Japan). After that,focal centers in disaster area were established in cooperation with Japan Disability Forum (JDF) - first in Miyagi (Sendai),followed by Fukushima (Koriyama) and Iwate (Morioka). The centers have been working mainly on providing support for persons with disabilities living in their homes. What was learned through these activities was that the problems that came to light because of the Great East Japan Earthquake were not caused by the disaster but were preexisting ones. In other words,if measures had been properly taken,it would probably have been possible to reduce the amount of damage and number of deaths,to ameliorate the troubles people had living at emergency shelters,and to quickly contribute to recovery after the disaster.

I would like to lay out here the reasons for the various problems related to persons with disabilities that came to light after March 11,make a general proposal that shows the direction the country should move in and six individual proposals related to these problems,and call on people to implement these. We should act to leverage 3.11 to create a turning point for Japan so that we can say Japan was reborn precisely because of 3.11. This should be done for the victims of 3.11 and is probably an obligation and responsibility of those who experienced and survived 3.11.

General proposal

What direction we should be moving - Creating an inclusive society in which no one excludes or is excluded -

This idea should not be limited to reconstruction but incorporated in to national policies as a lesson of March 11. To do so,we will move forward with developing domestic laws,such as a law prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities,which will contribute to the ratification of the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,and strongly demand that the following individual proposals be implemented.

Individual proposals

(1) Fully remove barriers in public facilities such as emergency shelters (elementary and junior high schools),regional emergency shelters and community centers.

Many elementary and junior high schools are designated as emergency shelters for local residents during disasters. The residents who flee to these emergency shelters naturally include persons with disabilities. Even if they do not have a certificate for persons with disabilities,there would,of course,be elderly with disabilities and people with illnesses. Emergency shelters have to be able to accommodate anyone.

• Promote inclusive education from a disaster prevention perspective.

The Ministry of Education,Culture,Sports,Science and Technology,which was behind the time regarding inclusive education before the disaster,was hesitant to make schools barrier free from a cost-benefit perspective as it would benefit few people. Because of this,however,after the Great East Japan Earthquake,there were numerous cases of evacuees in wheelchairs not being able to go to the bathroom because of steps in facilities such as gymnasiums and trouble with neighboring people on account of a lack of understanding of distinctive issues that persons with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities present. Many persons with disabilities and the elderly people faced prejudices and discrimination due to schools being full of barriers and a lack of understanding and either gave up on going to emergency shelters or were forced to return home since they felt that they would be exposed to more dangers if they went to the emergency shelter. Because of this,elementary schools and junior high schools should serve as the primary emergency shelters for everyone. Therefore,creating an environment in which local children are not segregated based on whether they have a disability or not but interact with various types of people on a regular basis will aid in responding to disasters. From this perspective,there is a need to promote inclusive education and to quickly make public facilities,including schools,barrier free.

(2) Standardize barrier free specifications for temporary housing.

The lessons regarding barriers at temporary housing learned from the Hanshin and Chuetsuoki earthquakes were not made use of. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake,ramps were not installed until requested,and there was a mismatch of needs since temporary housing that initially included ramps were assigned according to the results of drawings whether or not there was a need for the ramp. In addition,even though there were so-called barrier free specifications,they were limited to issues such as having a ramp for entrances,but people in wheelchairs who were with severe disabilities could not live in the temporary housing since the doors to entrances,toilets,and bathrooms were too narrow. From various perspectives including the graying of society and preventing mismatch due to drawings,there is a need to standardize barrier free specifications,not just increase the number of barrier-free temporary housing.

(3) Effectively handle and appropriately prepare personal information in the case of a disaster.

With the Great East Japan Earthquake,there were major delays in checks on the safety of persons with disabilities. One of the major reasons for this was that lists of people requiring aid during a disaster and users of welfare facilities for persons with disabilities were not released to people providing support from municipal governments because of the need to maintain confidentiality by protecting personal information. For the previously discussed reasons,there were few persons with disabilities at emergency shelters,and the only way to confirm their safety was to visit each home. There were more than a few number of people who had moved into private apartments rented as temporary housing,making it even more difficult to ascertain the location of people. Therefore,it was extremely difficult to confirm the safety of persons with disabilities.

• Release information to support organizations undertaking outsourced work from the government during emergencies such as disasters.
• Create lists of people requiring aid during a disaster by using any of various methods,including soliciting the names of people who want to be included on the list,such as those who need to regularly obtain medication,since many local governments limit people on the list to those who have a certificate for persons with disabilities.
• Create a system for smoothly procuring and storing medical supplies.

(4) Expand the scope of people covered by the Genpatsu Jiko Kodomo/Hisaisha Shienho (Act to Support Children and People Affected by the Disaster Following the Nuclear Accident).

The bill to protect people affected by the disaster exposed to radiation due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident was initially enacted on June 21,2012,as the Kodomo/Hisaisha Shienho (Act to Support Children and People Affected by the Disaster),which mainly applied to children and pregnant women,because there was an urgent need for relief for pregnant women and children who are highly vulnerable. This act recognizes the right to evacuate,move residences,or maintain one's health and the right to stay,and is an extremely important act as it stipulates support measures to achieve this.

• Expand the scope of people the act applies to adequate groups include personal assistants,persons with disabilities who require routine assistance,etc.

As quickly as possible,the scope of the law should be expanded to cover all residents in areas where the radiation exposure is more than 1 mSv/year. Persons with disabilities who need assistance,etc.,face the harsh reality that whether they evacuate,move residences,maintain their health,or stay in their permanent residence depends not only on what they want. Furthermore,because there are many people with low resistance and autoimmunity due to disease and disabilities and many people are placed in an environment in which it is difficult to manage their health or obtain detailed information,there is a need to expand the scope of people that the law applies to,to persons such as those requiring routine assistance and their personal assistances,families,etc.

(5) Simplify personal assistance services at home.

The current service system and qualification requirements is broken down into fine categories such as physical care,housekeeping assistance,visiting services for persons with severe disabilities,activity assistance,hospital-visit assistance,transportation assistance,etc. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake,it was extremely difficult to maintain operations that adhered to these divisions,and this became a major obstacle on the frontline of personal assistance at home. Because of this,personal assistants were forced to bear excessive workloads,which put the life of persons with disabilities who require assistance in danger.

• Simplify the types of services and qualification requirements in the current system.

Service providers are also affected by disasters,and complying with service categories and qualification requirements under complex constraints is a major burden for service providers who are also short of staff. Simplifying the system will be beneficial not only during disasters but also during regular times,and it can be considered an effective disaster prevention measure that will reduce confusion and turmoil during disasters.

• Eliminate requirements of having certificates of persons with disabilities to use services.

In addition,it is often the case that a person must have a certificate for persons with disabilities in order to receive related welfare services,and there were situations when people could not receive the support required by their disability or illness even during a disaster because they did not have that certificate. Out of consideration of this,there is a need to eliminate the certificate requirement,not create new certificates or strengthen the certificate requirement,but reinforce and expand the social work and network functions.

(6) Have persons with disabilities participate in reconstruction and city development

In order to create a society that is accessible for everyone to live in,we strongly require governments that persons with disabilities can take part in reconstruction and city development.

• Cities resistant to disasters are cities designed taking into consideration and provide accommodation for persons with disabilities.

When smoke and flames limit one's vision,when one cannot hear sirens and announcements because of damage or noise,when one's way along narrow sidewalks and passages are blocked,when one does not know the evacuation path because of difficult-to-understand signs,when one falls into a state of panic because of violent changing situations and it is impossible to make calm decisions,everyone can be considered a person with a disability. Therefore,understanding the unique needs due to various types of disabilities during regular times and undertaking urban development that takes into consideration those needs so disabilities will not be a problem when evacuating will probably result in a town that is resilient to disasters. Therefore,there is definitely a need for persons with disabilities to participate in developing,revising,and implementing reconstruction and city development plans.

• Develop energy measures including the perspective of persons with disabilities.
• Deploy a number of evacuation buses appropriate for the size of the municipality's population.