Time to push rents up?

March 8, 2018

Rent Hike Leaves Disaster Victims with Few Options

- Kazuaki Hirama

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/nhknewsline/reinvigoratingtohoku/renthikeleavesdisaster/

Swaths of land swallowed up by ten-meter high waves. Entire residential areas razed to the ground. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami left large parts of northeastern Japan barely standing.

The town of Namie was devastated by the disaster. Officials say almost 200 were killed by the tsunami. Homes were heavily damaged or completely washed away. People have been living in public housing ever since.

The Japanese government says that enough years have passed for it to jack up the rent at these accommodations. The news has left many shocked and thinking of how they'll survive.

Hiromi Endo is one of these people. She gets mixed feelings when she returns to her old neighborhood.

"I feel so great when I hear the sound of waves."

She likes being by the ocean but she can't see it because a levee is blocking the view. The landscape is still desolate seven years after the tsunami washed away her home.

She and her husband are still just trying to get by, living in public housing for people affected by the disaster.

Last month, they received a shocking notice in the mail. Their rent is going way up.

"My mind went blank," she says. "I had no words and couldn't even think."

Next month, their subsidized rent will almost double. Then next year, it will more than triple to about a thousand dollars.

Endo says they are still paying off debt from their kids' tuition fees. She and her husband both work but she's unsure if they'll be able to make ends meet.

"I can't borrow any more money. If I borrow more money, it will just be more that I need to pay back anyway. I'll get deeper into a more difficult situation. I'm in a real dilemma right now."

Endo is not alone. Thousands of people in disaster-hit areas are about to be affected by the law. People who are in subsidized public housing will need to start paying more if they earn above a certain income.

Critics say the government is scaling back help. Some local governments are chipping in the difference. But not all are.

Endo says when she thinks about the future, she's at a loss.

"If I can't live here, I only have one choice. I'll have to try to buy a house. But for now that is just a hope. I'm not even sure if the bank will let us take out another loan."

Endo says more than a thousand people have signed a petition for local authorities to chip in to help cover the cost of their rent hikes.

Meanwhile, construction crews are working to build up land to a higher elevation. And local authorities want to turn part of this area into an industrial zone, with the goal of building seafood processing centers.

Plans for the future are taking shape, but in reality people are still struggling to restore their lives almost a decade after the disaster.