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The Master Plan for Housing Reconstruction in Kobe, the city hardest hit by the earthquake, was created from the Emergency Three-Year Plan for Housing Reconstruction (hereafter the Three-Year Housing Reconstruction Plan) and the Kobe Housing Restoration Plan (hereafter the Housing Restoration Plan). A draft of the Three-Year Housing Reconstruction Plan was announced just two months after the earthquake on March 17, 1995, and it was enacted as policy on July 7, 1995. The Housing Restoration Plan, enacted a year and a half after the quake in July 1996 as a partial revision to the Three-Year Housing Reconstruction Plan, addressed issues of temporary housing residents and the need for public housing. Outlines of these plans follow.
1. Master Plan for Housing
The Three-Year Housing Reconstruction Plan
Regarding the responsibilities of the mayor, Article 4 of the Emergency Earthquake Reconstruction Ordinance states: "The mayor is responsible for the prompt drafting of plans for the reconstruction of housing and downtown areas and for announcing these to the city residents and businesses, while also promoting earthquake reconstruction activities and generating policies needed to execute such activities". The Three-Year Housing Reconstruction Plan is a "plan for the reconstruction of housing" as required by this ordinance, and it is also coordinated with the prefecture housing plan.
The basic emergency policy for recovery rests on five key points in the Ordinance.
(1)Cooperation among the citizens, businesses, and city government on residential and commercial development with the understanding that each sector is ultimately responsible for its own growth.
Table 1 shows the number of planned housing units by type of housing. An estimated 82,000 housing units were lost due to quake and fire damage from the earthquake. Since approximately 10,000 units were either under construction or unoccupied at the time of the quake, it is estimated that about 72,000 units must be constructed within three years. Of these, 29,000 will be for private ownership, while 43,000 will be rental units. An additional 10,000 units of public housing will be provided, 7,500 of which will be municipal housing units to be constructed at a rate of 2,500 units per year. This rate is four times the normal pre-quake construction pace of 600 units/year.
(2)Promotion of the immediate supply of a large quantity of housing units in the city and surrounding areas through joint efforts of major housing suppliers.
(3)Promotion of residential reconstruction that is fully integrated with commercial reconstruction.
(4)Prioritization of the provision of housing to the elderly and handicapped who cannot secure housing on their own while developing policies to help able-bodied citizens to achieve independent recovery.
(5)Promotion of residential and commercial area development that is highly resistant to disasters while increasing safety and convenience in everyday living and promoting a residential and urban climate characteristic of Kobe.
Several policies had to be drafted to implement this plan. These introduced programs for clearing the areas where many buildings either collapsed or were destroyed by fire and promoted housing construction and living environment improvements needed for community redevelopment. To provide a large quantity of public housing units in a short period of time, a lease/purchase system for privately owned buildings was introduced. The Housing and Urban Development Corporation, the largest housing supplier in Japan, was expected to play a large role in providing large quantities of semi-public housing units in the earthquake stricken areas as well as in acting as the construction agent for municipal public housing units.
Various aid measures were also devised for helping city residents rebuild their own housing. The Kobe Housing and Urbanization Personnel Center, the Kobe Housing Exhibition, and the Kobe Housing and Urbanization Fund greatly contributed to housing reconstruction after the earthquake.
The Kobe Housing Restoration Plan
While housing reconstruction was in progress under the Three-Year Housing Reconstruction Plan, surveys were taken among temporary housing residents that revealed the specific needs and desires of earthquake victims regarding their housing situations. The reconstruction of low-cost rental housing by the private sector was lagging, and emergency measures to expand the number of low-cost rental units provided by the public sector and to enact rent reductions were being retracted. The Housing Restoration Plan was announced in July 1996 to meet the needs that had arisen a year and a half after the earthquake. The plan incorporated three main purposes:
(1)To expand the number of public housing units provided under the Three-Year Housing Reconstruction Plan
(2)To create a rent reduction system
(3)To assist people transitioning from temporary to permanent housing, and to reconstruct private housing.
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| Table-1 Planned housing units of Three-Year Plan for Housing Reconstruction -> Housing units corrected by Housing Restoration Plan |
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Table-2 Provided plan of "low-cost rental housing" such as public housing |
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| Table-3 Earthquake disaster general reductions system" newly constructed housing units" |
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| Table-4 Earthquake disaster special reduction system "newly constructed housing units" |
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