Japan PM Sanae Takaichi visits Kumamoto after 7.1 quake; 38 dead, heat and water crises persist

Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has visited the south-western prefecture of Kumamoto, where recovery efforts are being hampered by heat and a lack of water supplies, almost a week after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake killed dozens and caused widespread damage.

Thirty-eight people died during the quake, including one person who died of apparent heatstroke while taking shelter in a car in hot weather, officials said on Monday.

Residents put out heaps of debris, broken furniture and damaged appliances for collection, while in the towns of Uki and Hikawa, construction of temporary housing began. Some hotels and inns were offering their rooms for evacuees.

More than 46,000 households remain without water and many also face fuel shortages as the region suffers sweltering heat, stoking fears of heat-related illness. Temperatures were as high as 40C in the country’s south on Monday.

More than 8,500 people remain at crowded emergency shelters in converted community centres, school gyms and classrooms, many of which lack airconditioning. Others are sleeping in cars at town hall parking lots and parks, or outside their homes.

Takaichi on Monday flew over the affected areas from an army helicopter and visited one of the area’s best-equipped shelters, with cardboard beds, partitions and airconditioning, triggering criticism on social media that her visit distorted reality.

The governor of Kumamoto, Takashi Kimura, in his meeting with Takaichi, stressed the “abnormal heat” over recent days. He said he sought further government support to improve the conditions at evacuation centres, saying many of them lacked clean water and medical care.

“While taking into consideration the governor’s requests, we will quickly examine what the government can do for the disaster-hit region and affected people and move proactively,” Takaichi said.

Meanwhile, a company that owned a general store in the shopping mall that collapsed during last weeks earthquake, acknowledged that it had instructed two employees to return to the building to put sales proceeds into a safe, where they were killed in an explosion that followed the quake.

Two executives of Habita, a local general store operator that had a shop inside the collapsed Aeon mall in the town of Kashima, attended the wake on Sunday of one of the two victims, 22-year-old Kurumi Otake, and apologised to her parents for the death.

Company sales manager Goji Yuse acknowledged that the company instructed the two to put sales proceeds into the safe if it was possible.

“I wish someone had stopped her,” Otake’s tearful mother told them. “My daughter is not coming back.”

The mall’s operator said it believes the explosion was due to a gas leak and occurred after about 3,000 shoppers had been evacuated to a parking lot after the quake, but some employees remained inside. Rescuers recovered five people and the bodies of seven others from the mall.