Japanese Government Hasn't Kept Any Minutes of Disaster Response Meetings Since 1995 Kobe Earthquake

It was only 4 days ago that Japan's PM Noda said "it is regrettable" that there were no minutes kept for the government response team's meetings ever since March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuke accident.

Then it turned out that Miyagi Prefecture and Iwate Prefecture didn't quite keep record of their disaster response meetings either.

Now it turns out that the Japanese government hasn't kept any minutes of disaster response meetings since the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Yomiuri Shinbun (1/31/2012) reports:

政府が１９９５年の阪神大震災以降の大規模災害の際に設置した緊急対策本部や非常災害対策本部の会議で、いずれも議事概要や議事録が作成されていないことが３１日、分かった。

It was discovered on January 31 that there was no meeting summary or minutes for any of the meetings of emergency response groups or emergency disaster response groups which were set up since the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

　複数の政府関係者が明らかにした。

Multiple government sources told Yomiuri.

　東日本大震災関連の政府の会議で議事録が作成されていなかったことが明らかになったことから、内閣府が調査対象を過去の災害時の本部に拡大し、阪神大震災や北海道・有珠山、東京・三宅島の噴火、新潟県中越地震、台風などに関する非常災害対策本部会議など８会議の作成状況を調べた。

Since it was revealed that there was no minutes of the government meetings relating to the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami disaster, the Cabinet Office expanded the investigation into the past disaster response headquarters to see if there were minutes created for the 8 separate disaster response headquarters set up after disasters including the Kobe earthquake (1995), Mt. Usu eruption in Hokkaido (2000), Miyakejima Island eruption in Tokyo (2000), Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata (2004), and major typhoons.

　その結果、阪神大震災時に設置した兵庫県南部地震緊急対策本部会議で、議事概要の一部が官房長官記者会見の要旨として残っているのを除き、すべての会議で議事録も議事概要も残っていなかった。議事次第や配布資料は多くの会議で一部が残っていた。

It turned out that except for the earthquake emergency response headquarters set up at the time of the Kobe earthquake that had part of the summary of proceedings kept as part of the outline of the then-Chief Cabinet Secretary's press conference, there was no minutes nor summary of proceedings. The Cabinet Office found some meeting announcements and handouts.

Oh boy. Isn't it amazing how they pretend to be a democratic nation?

I'm sure there will be many apologists who will say "If we know it will be recorded in the minutes, we won't be able to speak freely".

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