津波被災地での拾物、特に現金の行方。
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Tens of millions in 'lost' cash found
SENDAI (Kyodo) Rescue workers and citizens have turned in to authorities tens of millions of yen in cash found in the rubble-strewn tsunami-hit areas of the Tohoku region, police said Saturday.
Someone's: A police officer checks a bag with cash and belongings found in the tsunami debris on April 2. KYODO PHOTO
While police and local governments are pessimistic about finding the original owners, unless the money was found with some form of identification, survivors are calling on authorities to use it to help in the reconstruction of the ravaged areas.
Under law, people who find money can keep it if the original owners do not come forward within the three-month custodial period. When people who find it give up their claim or fail to show up to receive it within two months after the expiration of the period, ownership will be transferred to prefectural governments or the owners of the property where the money was found.
According to the police in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, police stations receive everyday on average several hundred items, containing cash.
Miyagi police said money has only been returned to the owners in less than 10 percent of the cases. A senior officer said, "It is impossible to return cash unless it is found inside a wallet together with an ID."
Shigeko Sasaki, 64, who is currently living in a shelter in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, said, "I want anybody picking up money to donate it to disaster-hit areas instead of keeping it for themselves."
Kenji Sato, 65, in Onagawa, also in Miyagi, said it is acceptable for people who find money and report it to the police to eventually keep it "because it means they have good will."
Takehiko Yamamura, head of the Disaster Prevention System Institute, urged authorities to set new measures to handle the matter, such as extending the three-month holding period and special permission to open a safe to determine the owner.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Number of people receiving welfare tops 2 million mark
Kyodo
There were 2.02 million people receiving welfare as of March, close to the record 2.04 million in the aftermath of World War II, while the number of households on welfare in March hit an all-time high of 1.46 million, the government said.
The total number of people was almost equivalent to the record monthly average of about 2.04 million logged in fiscal 1952, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Tuesday.
A total of 549 households began to receive welfare benefits in March and April after losing their homes and jobs as a result of the March 11 calamity, including the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Of the 549 households, 268 were headed by a person of working age, the ministry said.
The figure, however, excludes data from municipalities heavily hit by the disaster, including Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.
The number of welfare recipients across the nation is believed to have topped the 2 million mark in February as data from Fukushima Prefecture were unavailable due to the disasters. The figure for February was 1.99 million without the data from Fukushima.
Under the welfare benefit system, assistance is given to a household when its total income fails to match the minimum cost of living designated by the government.
341 firms went bust due to disasters
Wednesday, Sep. 14, 2011Kyodo
A total of 341 firms have gone under due to the effects of the March earthquake and tsunami, according to credit research agency Teikoku Databank.
As of Sunday, the six-month anniversary of the disaster, debts left behind from the failed businesses totaled about \612.3 billion and the businesses had a combined 6,376 employees, the agency said Monday.
The number of bankruptcies with debts of \10 million or more represents a rate about 2.8 times faster than the 123 failures in the six months following the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995.
A Teikoku Databank official said the disaster-related failures have included many apparel stores and restaurants, where customers were reluctant to spend money.
By region, 62 failures took place in Tohoku region, of which 46 were reported in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, the three prefectures hardest hit by the twin disasters.
In the Kanto region, 128 failures were reported, of which 64 happened in Tokyo, the agency said.
Twenty-eight businesses, or 8.2 percent of the total, were directly hit by the disaster, such as damage to plants by the tsunami.
