Big earthquake in Niigata!!

[MikeM]

Great news. Hope the bureaucracy is not too much!

[B.Scott]

Great suggestion. Now we need to convince the politicians

How much chance is there of this actually being implimented?

B.Scott

[kiky]

Hope that the implementation is asap, because even with that kind of support it will still take years for real recovery.

[B.Scott]

Eternal cynic that I am I'm just pointing out that a suggestion being made and an actual political decision being reached are issues on separate sides of a vast and deep chasm. It's all too easy for a group to call for measures to betaken but unless there it the political will to do so there is no point in getting ones hopes all too high.

B.Scott

[Gen-Rin-Koi]

I guess the relief ( money support ) will come into effect immediately, because the relief law already exists and now is ready for application - the Cabinet has decided the application at Nov 26 for big earthquake in Niigata.

The name of the law is "Gekijin Saigai Ho" ,which assures unexpected big disaster such as flood, typhoon as well as big earthquake.

Hanshin-Awaji big earthquake also had been applied.

The aim of the law is to recover chiefly "broken facility", so the relief might be limited within Mud ponds and Overwinter ponds and so on. No relief for harvests and Oya-Kois.


Gen-Rin-Koi
Tokyo, Japan

[Brian]

Gin-ren,

I have my doubts that the koi farmers will see much if any of this relief money, as their status as farmers as far as the government is concerned is unclear. They are not very unified, and don't have any powerful farm unions or representatives like JA. They themselves have conceded that very fact, and since the Shinkokai was unable to produce any statistics on breeding numbers, or sales figures totals, it's going to be very hard for them to justify receiving money out of this fund, especially when they have received government money in the past to convert their rice paddies into ponds in order to limit the rice supply.

I hope as much as anybody else that the breeders get as much assistance from the government as possible, but between the typhoon victims, flood victims, and earthquake victims that have verifiable damage to their agriculture ventures, getting a sizable amount of cash assistance from the government fund seems like it's going to be a hard sell.

[Gen-Rin-Koi]

Brian

I think this money relief could be expressed in the following words.

1. Disaster is vast and serious, and victims are still unstable.
2. Quick action by government is requied.
3. A slight hope must be showed.
4. The area around Ojiya, Yamakoshi is the province, therefore government needs to play a more positive roll than that taken when city (such as Tokyo) damages.
5. And Koi itself is a Japan original culture being prevailed overseas.

I understaand the aim is to give the minimun environment (facility)
to restart koi breeders' businesses.
No mention was made about assurance for in proportion to past sales
and for their "inventories" lost (harvest this year to be sold)
and "asset" lost (for instance, Oya-koi, Take-Koi ).

Form above No.1 to No.4 also seem to come to the reasons to raise up the rate of government support.

• For public infrastructure (road, bridge, gas, water ..) 70% to 90%
• For rebuild private school 　0% to 50%
• For rebuild public facilities ( gym, social community place..) 0% to 66%

This summer, I was nearly caught in flood in Wakayama Prefecture spending my summer vacation going down the river with my canoe.
I feel terrible disasters broke out especially and frequently this year.

It's time to consider what preparation should be taken prior to
unexpected disaster.


Gen-Rin-Koi
Tokyo, Japan

[Doug Ward]

Welllllllll.
I gotta say this !
It'll probably bring out allot of FLAMEZZ !
Ya got some ole guys, in the Niigata mountain areas, with a kazillion dollars worth of fish.
No questions at this point ... correct ?
They sell fish from $20 USD(tiny tosai) to 20,000 USD (few)
Why in the world would they not have extremely elaborate backup generator systems ???
I do understand that these guys are "hillbillies" and all they know is breeding/culling Koi ( a good thang).
I still cannot figure all of this out.
It makes NO sense.
I don't get it...

[B.Scott]

The simple answer to that question is simply that the buisiness isn't all that lucrative. Most koi breeders work quite hard and earn a relatively modest income for the amount of money and risk they face each year. Notice few of them live in palatial splender. All the income is coming from the big tatagoi and the fish theykeep over for customers in the mud ponds. Some of them have generators but it's not a luxery many of the smaller breeders can permit themselves.