３・１１の誓い 震災の記憶を防災に生かそう

The Yomiuri Shimbun March 13, 2014
Lessons from 2011 quake must be put to use for Japan and the world
３・１１の誓い　震災の記憶を防災に生かそう（3月12日付・読売社説）

Every possible effort must be made to prevent and mitigate damage from major natural disasters that may strike in the future. It is essential to learn from the many lessons of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, to ensure that our nation is better prepared for natural calamities in the future.
　様々な教訓を将来への備えに生かせるよう、防災・減災に全力で取り組まねばならない。

A government-sponsored ceremony in Tokyo paid tribute to the memory of those who died in the 2011 catastrophe on Tuesday. The event was attended by about 1,200 people, including the Emperor and Empress. Also present at the ceremony were the chiefs of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, along with representatives of the victims’ families and foreign ambassadors to this country. All prayed for the souls of the departed.
　政府主催の東日本大震災追悼式が東京で開かれた。天皇、皇后両陛下をはじめ、安倍首相ら三権の長、遺族代表、各国駐日大使ら約１２００人が参列し、犠牲者の冥福を祈った。

Attendants included Mikiko Asanuma, who represented the families of the deceased in Iwate Prefecture. “The pain of those who fell victim [to the earthquake], and the great sorrow and suffering of their families must be conveyed to future generations,” she said in her memorial address at the ceremony.
　岩手県遺族代表の浅沼ミキ子さんは、「亡くなった方々の無念さと、その数倍もの遺族の悲しみと悔しさを未来へと語り伝えていかねばなりません」と訴えた。

The prime minister reiterated his determination to see implemented a set of measures that his administration has pursued to render Japan disaster-ready and disaster-resistant. “I take to heart the valuable lessons learned from the ordeal, and I will promote efforts to build a country that can resist and withstand damage from disasters in order to steadfastly defend our people from future disasters,” Abe said before the assembled crowd.
　首相は「試練から我々が得た貴重な教訓を胸に刻み、災害から国民を守り抜くため、災害に強い強靱(きょうじん)な国づくりを進める」と述べ、政権が掲げる国土強靱化政策の推進に改めて意欲を示した。

The hurdles are high and numerous. They include making seismic retrofits of existing buildings to make them more quake-resistant and revamping outdated infrastructure. There is also an urgent need to prepare in earnest for disasters that have been forecast, including a quake centered just below the surface of Tokyo or a quake in the Nankai Trough. Either one of these envisaged disasters could strike any day.
　建物の耐震化や老朽化した社会資本（インフラ）の更新など、課題は山積している。いつ起きても不思議ではない首都直下地震と南海トラフ巨大地震の対策にも、本腰を入れる必要があろう。

But we must avoid the pointless allocation of massive budgets to nonessential public works projects. What is needed instead is an examination of whether the costs a given project will incur will be worth the benefits derived from it.
　ただし、不要不急の公共事業に巨額の予算を投入するようなことがあってはならない。費用対効果の十分な吟味が求められる。

In pursuing improved disaster-resistance, it is important not to limit ourselves to improving the quake resistance of buildings and infrastructure, but to incorporate human expertise, experience and other intangible resources related to disaster management.
　ハード面だけでなく、ソフト面のアプローチも大切だ。

Raising public awareness

According to a Cabinet Office survey conducted in late 2013, just over 60 percent of respondents said they had discussed how to cope with disasters with their families in the past one or two years. That figure is nearly double the number from a similar poll taken in 2002.
　内閣府が昨年末に実施した防災に関する世論調査によると、この１～２年に家族らと災害時の対応を話し合った人は、６割強に上っている。２００２年の前回調査と比べると、２倍近くに増えた。

The 2011 disaster did much to raise the public’s awareness of disaster damage prevention. This improvement must be exploited to help make each local community better prepared for disaster management.
　東日本大震災後に高まった防災意識を、地域社会の体制作りにつなげることが肝要である。

Learning the skills that can help mitigate disaster damage should start in childhood. We should teach how earthquakes and tsunami are generated and the ways they can strike people and buildings. We should teach people history of their communities, and build awareness of the sorts of of disaster likely to hit their community, and the areas most at risk. This will all require improvements to disaster-mitigation education and evacuation drills.
　災害への対応力は、子どもの時から養いたい。地震や津波の仕組みを学び、地域の歴史を調べて、起きやすい災害や危険な場所を知る。それには、防災教育や避難訓練の充実が欠かせない。

People should always be encouraged to recognize the importance of helping one other within their communities in the event of a disaster.
　近隣で助け合う「共助」に日頃から心掛けておくべきだろう。

At a House of Councillors Budget Committee session, the prime minister emphasized the importance of imparting this nation’s hard-won knowledge to the rest of the world to promote disaster damage management worldwide. He said in the Diet that doing so “is Japan’s obligation as a nation that received helping hands from so many other countries in the wake of the [2011] great earthquake.”
　首相は参院予算委員会で、防災に役立つ知見を世界に発信することが「大震災で多くの国々から支援の手を差し伸べられた日本の責務だ」との認識も示している。

Our nation is extraordinarily prone to such natural calamities as earthquakes, typhoons and landslides due to heavy rainfalls.
　日本は、地震や台風、土石流など自然災害が突出して多い。

For years, our nation has offered disaster-damage reduction technologies to less developed countries in the form of official development assistance. The invaluable lessons Japan has learned from the various disasters it has overcome should be put to use to improve diplomatic relations with other countries.
これまでも政府開発援助（ＯＤＡ）で途上国に防災技術を供与してきたが、多様な災害から得た貴重な情報は外交にも生かすべきだ。

In March next year, the United Nations’ third World Conference on Disaster Reduction will be held in Sendai to discuss guidelines for disaster-damage management.
　来年３月、仙台市で第３回国連防災世界会議が開かれ、防災政策の指針について話し合う。

Japan should not only lead discussions in the U.N. meeting. It should use the conference as an opportunity to show the rest of the world how far post-quake rehabilitation has come in areas hit by the 2011 catastrophe and demonstrate its efforts to make each community in this country strong and resilient against disaster damage.
　日本にとっては、議論を主導するだけでなく、被災地の復興と災害に強い町づくりを国際社会にアピールする場としたい。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 12, 2014)
（2014年3月12日01時32分 読売新聞）