Prime Minister Takaichi's Remarks at the 6th Emergency Meeting

On August 4, 2026, Prime Minister Takaichi attended the 6th Emergency Disaster Management Headquarters meeting for the 2026 Kumamoto Earthquake at the Prime Minister's Office. During her visit to the affected areas the previous day, she conducted a wide-area inspection, visited an evacuation shelter at Hikawa Junior High School in Hikawa Town, and exchanged views with the Kumamoto governor, gaining an understanding of evacuation conditions, concerns among younger people, and requests for support for shelters and finances.

The Prime Minister called for the government to urgently consider what was necessary for the affected areas and residents and to mobilize all its resources to promote action forcefully. She also indicated that disaster response should not be delayed because of budgetary constraints and that reserve funds should be used according to circumstances.

The government stated that it would advance recovery support so that people in the affected areas could regain their former lives as soon as possible. Restoring water, electricity, and fuel was presented as support for shelters, medical institutions, households, and retail stores.

To prevent disaster-related deaths and protect lives spared from direct death, the government identified health management for affected people, including those sheltering at home or sleeping in vehicles, heatstroke prevention, infectious disease measures, and housing provision as important.

Building the systems of affected local governments was considered essential for supporting evacuees, issuing disaster victim certificates promptly, and restoring and reconstructing infrastructure.

Reserve funds will be used for push-based supplies, support for prefectural rescue operations, and the accelerated and strengthened implementation of disaster recovery, including emergency restoration. They will continue to be used from emergency response through full-scale recovery and reconstruction.

Although assessment of the damage is ongoing, the damage caused by this earthquake is expected to be designated as a severe disaster. This is the so-called full severe-disaster designation, under which special national subsidy measures will be provided for disaster recovery projects involving public civil engineering facilities such as rivers and roads, as well as agricultural land.

Water trucks will be dispatched to shelters and medical institutions. Water and sewerage outages will be eliminated successively in early and mid-August, and completely eliminated in all affected areas by the end of August. Fuel oil supply capacity will be four times normal levels, and approximately 90 percent of gas stations in Yatsushiro City, Uki City, and Hikawa Town have resumed operations.

Shelter conditions and needs will be assessed, and toilet trucks, relief supplies, hot meals from kitchen trucks, and water-recycling showers will be provided. Support will also be provided for establishing shelters that can accept pets.

On August 2, Kumamoto Prefecture announced that it had confirmed one person who might have died a disaster-related death. Outreach support will include patrols by police and firefighters, heatstroke measures by teams including public health nurses, and infectious disease management and prevention through DICT.

Secondary evacuation to hotels, inns, and other facilities began on August 2, and construction work on prefabricated emergency housing began in Uki City and Hikawa Town. Guidance also began on temporary occupancy of prefectural housing and rental-type emergency housing.

On the PFI vessel Hakuo II, scheduled to enter Yatsushiro Port, the Self-Defense Forces will provide bathing, accommodation, and meals, while JMAT will provide medical care on board. This is the first initiative based on the Act on Promotion of Medical Care Using Ships.

The dispatch of 637 support personnel from 35 prefectures and metropolitan governments and 17 cities nationwide to six affected municipalities has been decided. They will support disaster management and shelter operations, while the dispatch of technical personnel such as civil engineering and construction specialists will also be coordinated.

Support will be provided for establishing and operating temporary storage sites so that disaster waste, including cleanup waste, can be transported there smoothly. On-site support will also be provided to prevent delays in processing night soil and household waste.