Disaster Debris Wide-Area Disposal: Toyota Eager to Help at Its Factory Site in Aichi Prefecture on a Landfill

Toyota's Tahara Factory in Tahara City, Aichi Prefecture makes Lexus. The factory is on a landfill on Mikawa Bay, and the company says there is a plenty of space for Tohoku disaster debris.

Mainichi Shinbun (4/5/2012) reports:

震災で発生したがれき処理で、トヨタ自動車が愛知県から打診されていた同社田原工場（同県田原市）敷地内での最終処分場建設を受け入れる方向で検討に入ったことが５日、明らかになった。周辺住民や工場従業員への影響を調査し、周辺住民や自治体の同意が得られれば、県と具体的な協議に入る方針。

It has been revealed that Toyota has started the internal discussion to agree to the request from the Aichi prefectural government to build a final disposal site on its factory compound in Tahara City. The company will study the effect on the nearby residents and the factory workers, and once the consent from the residents and the local municipality (Tahara City) is obtained Toyota will start discussing the details with the Aichi prefectural government.

　トヨタは「正式な要請があれば、前向きに検討する」とコメントしている。

Toyota says, "If there is a formal request, we will be glad to consider."

　田原工場は埋め立て地に立地。敷地面積約３７０万平方メートルと、東京ドーム約８０個分の広さがあり、高級車「レクサス」などを生産している。トヨタは東北を小型車の生産拠点と位置づけており、復興を支援する意味でも「可能なことは協力したい」としている。

Toyota's Tahara Factory is located on the landfill. It is about 3.7 million square meters, or about 80 Tokyo Domes. The factory assembles cars including its luxury car "Lexus". For Toyota, the Tohoku region is the manufacturing base for its small, compact cars. The company says, "We would like to help as much as possible", to support the recovery of Tohoku.

According to Chunichi Shinbun (4/5/2012) which has been very gun-ho about disaster debris incineration, the governor of Aichi, Hideaki Omura (see photo), has decided to spend 600 million yen to plan for the incineration plant, temporary storage and a final disposal site, without deliberation in or approval from the Assembly. The prefectural government will use a special procedure called "Senketsu" - acting on its own.

Chunichi indicates that Toyota's factory will have the final disposal site where the ashes will be buried, and Chubu Electric's thermal power plant will get to burn the debris. Aichi Prefecture want to burn 1 million tonnes of disaster debris to help the recovery.

The Ministry of the Environment will reimburse the cost for new facilities that will process disaster debris from Tohoku.

Governor Omura is another Tokyo University graduate (law) and a former bureaucrat at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries before he turned to politics.

Toyota's Tahara Factory location:

大きな地図で見る

I guess Toyota and the Japanese government are counting on the WTO if global "baseless rumors" hurt Toyota's sales.

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