Kirk here with a photo of damage caused by heavy rains last year. The article is about what LDP politicians have to say about disaster preparedness. In that context, Kumamoto is a poster child of sorts. The photo caption reads as follows: “Buckled tracks on the JR Hisatsu Line near Watari Station in Kumamoto Prefecture after heavy rains on July 5, 2020 (Jun Kaneko).”
Kumamoto also comes up in relation to candidate for party head (and, by extension, prime minister) KONO Taro:
“Taro Kono, the minister of administrative reform and one of four candidates for the LDP presidential election on Sept. 29, was in charge of disaster prevention and mitigation when areas in Kumamoto Prefecture were hit by a cluster of massive earthquakes in 2016. In a book he wrote, Kono made some notable proposals, including a program to train experts in disaster risk management.”
