Japan MPs push for bomb shelter roll-out as China, North Korea tensions rise
- Most homes in Japan don’t have basements and the thousands of designated evacuation centres for use in natural disasters are rarely underground
- More shelters are needed as ‘the world has changed a lot’ in recent years, said a co-leader of the lawmakers’ group pushing for shelter provision
A bill laying out a schedule for shelter provision could be passed as soon as next financial year, Keiji Furuya, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker and former minister for national resilience, said in an interview last week.
“Japan hasn’t been involved in a war for 77 years, but what we’ve taken for granted since then no longer holds true,” said Furuya, co-leader of a lawmakers’ group pushing for shelter provision. “The world has changed a lot.”
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While there are vast networks of subways in major Japanese cities that could be used for civil defence, most homes in the country don’t have basements. This could leave people who live away from major metro centres at a life-threatening quandary in the event of a missile attack from China or North Korea that could come in a manner of 15 minutes or less from launch.