Cabinet Office Survey Finds 200 Local Govts Have No Stockpile of Portable Beds for Use in Case of Emergency

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:02 JST, January 18, 2025

More than 200 local governments have no stockpile of cardboard and other portable beds to use in case of an emergency, according to a survey by the Cabinet Office.

The survey was conducted on 1,788 prefectural and municipal governments nationwide on the stockpile of 50 items, including drinking water, food and other disaster supplies and equipment.

The survey was conducted for the first time in the wake of the finding that such stockpiles were insufficient at local governments affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake that occurred on Jan. 1, 2024.

The central government will strengthen financial support to local governments through subsidies to encourage them to stockpile necessary items.

According to the survey, most prefectural and municipal governments had a stockpile totaling about 29.7 million liters of water and around 92.8 million servings of staple foods including sweet buns and “alpha rice,” a kind of dried, processed rice that can be eaten with the addition of water, as of Nov. 1.

But 208 local governments had no portable beds in stock and 378 sanitary products.

“Reserves of food and drinking water were sufficient, but portable beds were clearly in short supply,” a Cabinet Office official said.

The central government will use subsidies for regional revitalization to ensure local governments stockpile necessary items. It also plans to amend the Basic Law on Disaster Management to make it compulsory for local governments to disclose their stockpiles of emergency supplies once a year.