SUZU: Outflows of young people from areas battered by the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, are prompting worries about a lack of people needed for reconstruction.
Despite plans by the Ishikawa prefectural government for what it calls creative reconstruction, rebuilding quake-hit areas is expected to take a long time as much debris still remains.
In Wajima and Suzu, hit hard by the temblor, the populations of people under 30 as of April 1 fell by about 12 percent and 8 percent, respectively, from a year before. The decreases are far bigger than about 4 percent and 5 percent , respectively, for the Wajima and Suzu populations aged 70 and older, showing that the outflow of young people is especially serious.
“Who is going to carry out the so-called creative reconstruction?” asked Toshio Itoya, 69, head of the Noroshimachi district of Suzu. “Old men and women can’t do it.”
Itoya said that he does not believe many people will return to the district on the tip of the peninsula even if temporary housing is built and infrastructure is restored.
“It’s a simple story. You can’t make ends meet here,” he said, adding that people will come even without being asked to if it is easy to make a living.
Itoya established an organization two years ago that sends young people from urban areas to restaurants, farms, and other places in Suzu seeking workers.
In the project, certified under a state program, young people moved to Suzu and worked in different jobs by season or by day of the week.
The project hired as many as 10 young people at one point before the Jan. 1 quake struck, forcing five to leave the peninsula.
Although some of the young people that took part in the project went on to work as local regular employees, the quake caused them to lose their homes and left them no choice but to move out to other places.
Itoya said that it is necessary to have a system in which young people can make a living in the primary industry in order to get such people to settle down, but this is considered difficult.
“People will come if they are guaranteed proper salaries and low-priced housing,” he said, stressing the need for securing public housing for young people.
The Ishikawa prefectural government’s reconstruction plans call for increasing the so-called related population, or people continuously involved in a particular region without necessarily being permanent residents. But Itoya is skeptical about whether this will achieve meaningful effects.
“In this area, we must look after cows and cut the grass,” he said. “We can’t maintain the area unless there are people who settle down and work hard at the grassroots level.”
JIJI Press