Studying In Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun

KOBE--Only about 40 percent of municipalities have released the results of earthquake resistance checks on public primary and middle school buildings, although releasing the information is required under the revised law concerning special measures for earthquake and disaster management, a Yomiuri Shimbun survey has found.

Despite the revision of the law that went into effect in June, many municipalities said they were unable to plan earthquake safety improvements to school buildings due to financial difficulties. They also expressed concern that releasing information on the buildings' seismic resistance would cause public anxiety.

As schools are used as local disaster relief facilities, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry has again requested that municipalities release the information, saying it is necessary to share information on possible dangers.

The Yomiuri Shimbun surveyed 1,894 municipal education boards and secretariat associations through prefectural education boards to find out whether they had disclosed information on the seismic resistance of school buildings as of Oct. 1.

Those that said they had released the information numbered 785, or 41 percent.

Among the other 1,109, or 59 percent, that have not yet disclosed the information, 303 said they were working to make the information available to the public before the end of March, while the other 806 said they either were planning to do so sometime after April or had no plans to pursue the matter.

Among prefectures, Tochigi ranked last in information disclosure, with only 3 percent of its municipalities having released the information. Seven other prefectures, mainly in western Japan, saw fewer than 20 percent of their municipalities disclosing the information.

The disclosure rate in Hyogo Prefecture, which suffered the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, was 16 percent.

Shizuoka and Tokushima prefectures have been preparing for a possible Tokai, Tonankai or Nankai earthquake, and all municipalities in the two prefectures have released the results of seismic resistance checks on school buildings.

In nine other prefectures, including Iwate and Tottori, which have been hit by major earthquakes in the past 10 years, more than 60 percent of the municipalities have disclosed the information.

Ashikaga in Tochigi Prefecture, which has not released the information, said it did not have the financial resources to make its school buildings earthquake resistant. "Even if we release the seismic resistance evaluation results on the school buildings, we won't be able to explain [to residents] our future plans to reinforce the buildings," an official said.

The Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education said municipalities in the prefecture might have become more cautious after the 1995 earthquake.

The revision, requiring municipalities to conduct seismic resistance checks on school buildings and gymnasiums and to release the results, was initiated by lawmakers after a devastating earthquake hit China's Sichuan Province in May, collapsing about 6,900 school buildings in the province alone.

According to the education ministry, about 10,000 primary and middle school facilities could collapse if hit by an earthquake in the upper 6 level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale.

"It's a problem that parents don't get information that's related to the safety of their children," an official of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers Association of Japan said. "[The municipalities] must show us information on possible dangers and their future plans [for reinforcing school buildings], and also accelerate their efforts to handle the reinforcement work."

Schools limiting use of facilities

The municipal education board of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture--one of the cities that suffered serious damage in the Great Hanshin Earthquake--has not disclosed the results of seismic resistance checks of its school facilities, as it was decided the risk information should be given to residents along with its future plans to improve earthquake resistance. However, it plans to name school facilities that are believed in danger of collapse in a major earthquake.

The gymnasium of Hiraki Primary School is one of the 20 facilities in the city deemed by the ministry to be highly vulnerable to an earthquake in the upper 6 level on the seismic intensity scale. In December, Principal Yonezo Kida was told by a municipal education board official that the school gymnasium lacks sufficient seismic resistance.

Kida has instructed the teachers to limit the use of the gymnasium. The education board said it will create a plan to reinforce school buildings around March, but Kida said, "[Seismic resistance of school facilities] is beyond what a school can handle on its own."

The Daisen Primary School Akamatsu branch building in Daisencho, Tottori Prefecture, was evaluated in June to be at high risk of collapse if hit by an earthquake of upper 6.

Bringing the building's earthquake resistance up to standards will cost the municipality 60 million yen even with the government subsidy. "It's impossible to do the reinforcement work," a municipal government official said.

The school building has been closed since June, and the classes have taken place in a school gymnasium that meets the seismic resistance standards.

"I hope our child can study in a safe building as soon as possible," one father said.