Article 8Exercising of Care in the Interest of Disaster Management in Enforcing Measures

一matters concerning scientific research on disasters and their prevention and putting the findings into practice;

二matters concerning forest conservation, flood control, and other matters concerning conservation of the national land;

三matters related to the earthquake-proofing of residential land, the fireproofing and strengthening of buildings, and the improvement of structures for disaster management in the cities in other forms;

四matters concerning disaster management measures corresponding to the concentration of urban functions such as traffic, information communications, etc.;

五matters concerning the establishment of facilities and organizations concerned with operations necessary for disaster management such as the observation, forecasting, and information gathering of meteorological phenomena, terrestrial phenomena, and hydrological phenomena, and facilities and organizations concerned with communication necessary for disaster management;

六matters concerning the improvement of disaster forecasts and alarms;

七matters concerning the improvement of methods for publicizing earthquake forecasting information (referring to earthquake forecasting information prescribed in Article 2, item (iii) of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Countermeasures for Large-scale Earthquakes (Act No. 73 of 1978));

八matters concerning international cooperation with respect to consolidation of a network of meteorological observation;

九matters concerning international cooperation with respect to human control of typhoons, and other necessary research on disaster management, observation, and exchange of information;

十matters concerning measures for long-term disasters caused by volcanic phenomena, etc.;

十一matters concerning the establishment of facilities and organizations for flood prevention, fire-fighting, rescue, and other emergency disaster control measures;

十二matters concerning conclusion of agreements on mutual support of local governments, wide-area evacuation prescribed in Article 61-4, paragraph (3), and wide-area temporary stay prescribed in Article 86-8, paragraph (1) and an agreement on ensuring the cooperation of private groups;

十三matters concerning the encouragement of citizens to engage in voluntary disaster management activities such as fostering voluntary disaster management organizations, enhancing the environment for disaster management activities by volunteers, supporting activities to hand down lessons learned from past disasters, and other activities;

十四matters concerning the improvement of an environment in which persons engaged in support for disaster victims can carry out activities smoothly and effectively in areas where a disaster has occurred;

十五matters concerning ensuring the mental and physical health of disaster victims, securing places to reside, and any other matters related to protection of disaster victims;

十六matters concerning the reconstruction of the lives of disaster victims;

十七matters necessary for disaster management measures for the elderly, disabled persons, infants, and others requiring special care (hereinafter referred to as "persons requiring special care");

十八matters concerning the acceptance of disaster management assistance from other countries;

十九matters concerning the provision of accurate information to disaster victims and consultation initiated by them;

二十matters concerning education and drills necessary for disaster management;

二十一matters concerning the dissemination of disaster management thinking;

二十二matters concerning the utilization of information and communications technology and other advanced technology necessary for disaster management.