In the event of a disaster, only 10% of major local governments want residents to evacuate directly to shelters set up for people who need nursing care, a Yomiuri Shimbun survey has found.
Nearly half the respondents wanted people to go to so-called care shelters after first evacuating to general shelters. The national government is urging local authorities to promote direct evacuation, but it seems to take some time before this can be realized.
Care shelters are set up by local governments in public facilities and social welfare facilities in accordance with the Basic Law on Disaster Management, with equipment for the elderly and disabled who need nursing care. The process of accepting evacuees at care shelters differs from municipality to municipality.
From March to May, The Yomiuri Shimbun asked 107 municipalities across the nation about their care shelters, surveying cities where a prefectural government is located, government-designated major cities, Tokyo's 23 wards, and other major cities. Responses were received from 104 cities and wards.
Only 11 municipalities chose direct evacuation, while 51 chose first going to general evacuation centers and then moving to care shelters when the latter facilities were ready. Forty-two municipalities were undecided.
The national government revised the guidelines for the operation of care shelters in May. It is urging local governments to promote direct evacuation by coordinating in advance who will be accepted.
As of October last year, about 24,800 care shelters had been secured nationwide, and there were about 7.76 million people who were eligible to use them.
In evacuations after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, it became social problems that the elderly were forced to live in temporary evacuation facilities for a long time, causing them to get sick.
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