TOKYO: The Japanese government will consider building nuclear fallout shelters given North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio said Monday.

“We are aware of the need to implement countermeasures realistically,” Kishida told a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the country’s parliament.

Kishida said that the government is considering necessary functions and issues regarding fallout shelters by studying the situation in other countries.

Ways to protect the people including the securing of shelters is an important issue that needs to be discussed in relation to the planned updates late this year to the country’s three key defense documents, Kishida said.

On last month’s state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Kishida said the funeral cost in revised expense data will not increase significantly from 1.24 billion yen in last week’s preliminary report.

JIJI Press