義援金の支給 善意を早く被災者の手元に

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Apr. 24, 2011)
Quickly pass donations to disaster victims
義援金の支給　善意を早く被災者の手元に（4月23日付・読売社説）

Huge amounts of money have been donated at home and abroad to survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
　東日本大震災の被災者に対して、国内や海外から、多くの義援金が寄せられている。

The Japanese Red Cross Society and the Central Community Chest for Japan have collected about 170 billion yen combined, and municipal governments in disaster-stricken areas have directly received donations of more than 20 billion yen.
　これまで、日本赤十字社と中央共同募金会に合わせて約１７００億円、被災した自治体にも直接、２００億円以上が集まった。

In the about 40 days since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the money donated has reached about the same amount as that given after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. The nuclear power plant crisis that has compounded the quake disaster has apparently stirred up feelings of sympathy in many people in Japan and overseas and convinced them to open their wallets.
　発生から４０日余りで、阪神大震災で寄せられた義援金とほぼ同じ金額に達した。原子力発電所事故を併発した今回の震災に、内外の多くの人が心からの支援の気持ちを寄託したということだろう。

This money, however, has yet to reach disaster victims.
　ところが、このお金が、まだ被災者の手元に渡っていない。

Thousands of people are still living in temporary shelters without any belongings, having lost everything in the tsunami. They urgently need money just to get by. We hope the donated cash will reach them as soon as possible.
　津波によって何もかも流され、着のみ着のまま避難所にいる人も多い。当座のお金にも困っているはずだ。一刻も早く義援金を配ってもらいたい。

On April 8, the secretariat of the committee in charge of distributing donations, which has been established in the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, decided on distribution details of the first batch of donations. Families will receive 350,000 yen for each person who was killed in the disaster or remains missing, and owners of houses that were destroyed will receive 350,000 yen and people whose homes have been severely damaged will get 180,000 yen.
　今回、義援金配分割合決定委員会の事務局は厚生労働省が務め、今月８日に第１次配分の基準額を決めた。亡くなった人の遺族や行方不明の人の家族に３５万円、家の被害は全壊が３５万円、半壊が１８万円――などだ。

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Distribution too slow

The donations will be distributed based of these criteria. Prefectural governments will add some money of their own before handing the cash to disaster victims through city, town and village governments.
　これをもとに被災各県に配分され、県が独自に金額を上乗せするといった手続きを経て、市町村から被災者に渡される。

The reality, however, is that some disaster-struck municipalities have only just started offering application procedures for receiving donations.
だが、ようやく一部自治体で申請手続きが始まったというのが現状である。

After the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the amount of the first distribution of donations was decided 12 days after the disaster, with people whose homes were destroyed receiving 100,000 yen in the initial payouts. Compared with this, decisions on donation distribution criteria and the payment process to victims of last month's quake and tsunami have been pointedly slow. Many people who generously made donations also probably feel frustrated by this situation.
　阪神大震災では発生から１２日後に第１次配分額が決まり、家が全半壊した人などにまず１０万円が支給された。それに比べると配分基準の決定も支給も遅い。義援金を託した人の方も、もどかしさを感じているのではないか。

The immense devastation wrought by the disaster has made it all but impossible for many disaster-hit municipalities to accurately assess the damage to individual households. Administrative functions of some city, town and village governments have been so badly eroded that they are unable to address the task of distributing donations.
　今回は、被害があまりにも甚大で、世帯ごとの被災状況をまだつかみきれない、という自治体が少なくない。役場の行政機能が大きく損なわれ、義援金の支給まで手が回らない市町村もある。

To alleviate this situation, the central government, prefectural governments outside the disaster zone and other entities should send personnel to lend a hand with clerical work needed to pass donations to disaster survivors.
　この面での事務作業にも、国や県、他地域の自治体から応援要員が必要だ。

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Make payments uniform

We think a uniform provisional payment should be given to people with damaged homes, rather than wasting time worrying over whether a house should be categorized as "destroyed" or "partially damaged."
　家屋は全壊か半壊かといった厳格な認定はおいて、暫定的な一律支給も検討すべきではないか。

A closer examination of the degree of damage can wait until the second round of donation distributions.
　被害の程度については、第２次以降の配分時までに確定すればいい。

Cash will be very helpful to disaster victims. These initial payments should be made flexibly and swiftly.
とりあえずの金額だけでも被災者は助かるだろう。柔軟なやり方で支給を急ぐべきだ。

Given the staggering death toll and number of people still unaccounted for, as well as the scale of property damage, much more money will need to be collected.
　犠牲者の数や被害の大きさを考えれば、より多くの義援金を集める必要がある。

First of all, the initial batch of donations must be distributed without a hitch to people who desperately need it. This will be a springboard for the next round of support and financial aid.
　まずは、被災者に最初の義援金を役立ててもらいたい。それが次の支援の原動力になる。

It also will be a message of acknowledgement from Japan to people around the world who have sent their goodwill to disaster victims.
　善意を寄せてくれた世界の人たちへ、日本からの感謝のメッセージにもなろう。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, April 23, 2011)
（2011年4月23日01時26分 読売新聞）