Japan Govt Eyes Record of Over ¥20 Trillion for National Resilience Plan to Strengthen Vital Infrastructure Such as Water, Sewage SystemsThe Yomiuri Shimbun

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, March 31, 2025

The government will allocate a record of more than ¥20 trillion to a five-year national resilience plan aimed at strengthening essential public utilities and disaster prevention, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

On Tuesday, the National Resilience Promotion Headquarters will announce the outline of the envisaged medium-term plan, which will be implemented in fiscal 2026. The plan will focus on reinforcing vital infrastructure affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake among other disasters in recent years, according to several government and ruling party sources.

In addition to preparations for large-scale earthquakes, the government has concluded that there is an urgent need to repair the water and sewage systems, as well as make them earthquake resistant — an issue raised by the recent road cave-in accident that occurred in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture. The government has decided to boost the scale of the national resilience plan by more than ¥5 trillion from the current one, which began in fiscal 2021, according to the sources.

The government also took into account the surge in material costs due to the recent high prices, the sources said.

The overall plan covers 324 projects in five areas — development and management of disaster prevention infrastructure; strengthening of essential utilities; utilization of digital and other new technologies; enhancement of public-private sector cooperation and boosting of disaster preparedness within local communities, according to the sources. The plan also includes repairing roads and bridges in about 92,000 locations across the nation and reinforcing mobile phone base stations.

After releasing the draft on Tuesday, the government will determine the scale of each project and finalize the plan by June.