Japan's quake victims left waiting

By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Tokyo

Isami Fujita is still living in temporary accommodation

Four months have passed since the Japanese coastal city of Kashiwazaki was hit by an 6.8-magnitude earthquake.

The tremor damaged more than 80% of the homes and caused damage to the nearby nuclear plant which led to its shut down.

The quake made headlines around the world because of the fire at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant and a leak of radioactive material into the sea.

But for the local people, many of whom rely on the plant for their livelihoods, the aftermath of the quake is still causing serious disruption.

Isami Fujita is 78. He is living in temporary housing with his wife and his mother who is bedridden.

Japan is an ageing society, there are fewer and fewer of those workers - not enough to fix all the houses Isami Fujita

The prefabricated metal hut is part of a long line of huts erected on what looks like a car-park.

The people who live there have done their best to make the huts as homely as possible.

There are pot plants outside the front doors next to huge gas cylinders that provide the power they need to keep themselves warm.

Cold weather

There is real concern here about what it is going to be like when winter comes. The first snow in this mountainous region is likely to fall at the end of the month.

Roads buckled under the strain of the quake

Mr Fujita slides open the front door of his unit and shows me inside.

"There's a kitchen and you can see a washing machine there," he says.

"You turn left and there's a bathroom with a toilet, but there are no windows - it's very dark. It's so tiny and I always bang my head walking into the room.

"It's difficult for the two of us to sleep in that small room with all our belongings around us. You can't even stretch out your legs in the bath tub."

We get in a car and drive for about 10 minutes to see his old house, along roads that are still cracked and buckled in some places by the earthquake this summer.

His old house is too dangerous to live in. He tells me that on the day of the earthquake the shaking was so severe that the lamp swinging against the ceiling made a hole in it.

There is a mechanical digger working on a plot nearby but Mr Fujita is still waiting for rebuilding to begin. The insurance does not cover the whole price.

Lack of builders

Although there is limited support available from the local council, the family has had to make up the difference from their savings.

Most of those living in the temporary housing are elderly. It's going to be very hard for them to rebuild their lives Hiroshi Aida Mayor of Kashiwazaki

Banks are unwilling to lend to pensioners, but a lack of funds is not the only factor that has held up the rebuilding.

"We don't have enough carpenters in the region," he explains.

"We don't have enough people to work on the roof. Japan is an ageing society, there are fewer and fewer of those workers - not enough to fix all the houses."

Hiroshi Aida, the mayor of Kashiwazaki, says they are still trying to finalise a comprehensive plan to rebuild his city and repair all the damage.

"In terms of recovery I think it's going to take at least three years," he says. "It could take even longer."

"What concerns me is that we have a lot of elderly people here and lots of them were living in old wooden houses that were destroyed.

"As a group they suffered the most. Most of those living in the temporary housing are elderly. It's going to be very hard for them to rebuild their lives."

Cities like Kashiwazaki do get financial aid from the central government to help them rebuild the facilities damaged by earthquakes, but it does not begin to cover the cost.

Shops closed

Yukio Fujinawa, an earthquake expert, says Japan needs to spend more money on measures to reduce the impact of earthquakes.

Residents have tried to make the housing feel more like home

"If you have no limits for funds you can put in place counter-measures that would offer significantly greater levels of protection.

"The reality is though we have limited funds, so there is a balance between what we can do to try to protect people and what damage the earthquake does."

Japan is a rich country but the bureaucracy moves slowly here. That does not help.

But as you drive around Kashiwazaki - where many shops are still shuttered and at night there are few people in the bars or on the streets - you can see that the quake this summer is still having an effect on the city.

Our taxi driver tells us that business is down, people just do not go out.

A woman who runs a bar explains that some of those whose houses or businesses were not so badly affected do not want to be seen out and about enjoying themselves when others are still suffering.

Like so many other residents here, Isami Fujita knows he will have to spend the winter in his prefabricated hut and probably many more months after that.

"There's really nothing we can do to speed up the process," he says. "But I really would like to move back home as soon as I can."