Districts affected by earthquake on Noto Peninsula consider relocation; Residents seek out areas less likely to be cut off in the event of a disaster

WAJIMA, Ishikawa — At least four districts in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, a city hit hard by the Noto Peninsula earthquake, are considering collective relocation of their residents, it has been reported.

These are the first such plans to be unveiled in areas hit by the January 1 earthquake. The four districts, home to a total of 257 households, are all ageing and depopulated, and most of them are located in mountainous areas.

Road closures temporarily isolated these neighborhoods after the quake. Many residents hope to relocate to places with a lower risk of isolation in the event of a natural disaster, and the Wajima municipal government plans to help them realize their plans. More locations may follow suit now that these relocation plans have been revealed.

Residents of 24 districts in four municipalities in the Okunoto region of Ishikawa Prefecture were isolated after the earthquake. Of these districts, 14 were in Wajima.

The four districts that plan to relocate are Urakami District in Monzen-machi, with 266 residents in 143 households; Besshodani District, with 77 residents in 41 households; and Uchikoshi District, with 22 residents in 11 households. All three districts are located in mountainous areas.

The remaining district is Inabune-machi, located by the sea and with 119 residents in 62 households.

In Monzen-machi Urakami, where 26 communities are scattered across the district, residents hope to collectively relocate to an area around the Urakami community center, near the national highway. Residents of Besshodani-machi plan to move to an area along the national highway about four kilometers north of the district, while those of Uchikoshi-machi plan to move to an area along a prefectural highway about approximately two kilometers southeast of the district.

All relocation sites are relatively close to their current residences and benefit from better access to the city centre.

“Our district has many elderly people. There was a landslide recently and it would be dangerous if we were isolated again,” said Hitoshi Yachi, 66, head of Uchikoshi-machi district.

Each neighborhood will hold discussions among its residents to decide whether everyone will move or just some of them. In Monzen-machi Urakami and Besshodani-machi, almost half of the residents hope to settle in new sites.

The Wajima municipal government has launched a “compact city” initiative aimed at consolidating some administrative and other functions, and the mass relocation plans are in line with that initiative. “We want to support these districts so that their communities are not dissolved,” Wajima Mayor Shigeru Sakaguchi told the Yomiuri Shimbun on Wednesday.

In Noto, a town in the tsunami-hit Okunoto region, the Shiromaru district chief and other residents were expected to discuss mass relocation with municipal officials on Wednesday. Shiromaru has 192 residents in 95 households.

In the towns of Suzu and Anamizu, there apparently is no concrete collective relocation project.

Among the existing schemes for collective relocation of residents is the Project for Promoting Collective Relocation for Disaster Mitigation, under which the central government subsidizes three-quarters of the land acquisition and other related costs. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, about 12,500 households were collectively relocated to new sites following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Similar displacements took place in Nagaoka and Ojiya, both in Niigata Prefecture, after the 2004 Chuetsu earthquake.

The Yomiuri Shimbun