Emergency Shelters: What Should Be Done to Increase Designated Underground Facilities?

Editorial

15:55 JST, April 13, 2026

To protect people’s lives from threats posed by other countries, it is essential to make every diplomatic effort and strengthen the nation’s defense capabilities. At the same time, it is the government’s responsibility to secure evacuation facilities in preparation for a possible armed attack.

The nation’s civil protection system must be strengthened by accelerating efforts to set up shelters where people can take refuge in times of emergency.

The government has approved a basic policy regarding emergency temporary shelters intended to protect people from dangers such as blast waves caused by a missile attack.

The task of securing emergency shelters has been stipulated as an obligation of prefectural governors under the Civil Protection Law, which was enacted in 2004. As of April last year, about 61,000 facilities were designated as such shelters nationwide. In terms of shelter numbers, an environment where shelters are accessible to the entire population appears to be in place.

This has finally been realized more than 20 years after the law was enacted.

However, because efforts to secure shelters have been made at prefectural and ordinance-designated city levels, problems remain, such as shelters being concentrated in urban areas, while smaller municipalities have not been able to secure a sufficient number of such facilities.

The basic policy has set a goal of securing shelters capable of accommodating all residents at the municipal level by the year 2030. It seems reasonable to ensure that people can use emergency shelters no matter where they live.

Specifically, the policy calls for a measure to promote the dual use of disaster evacuation facilities to utilize them as shelters during times of emergency as well. To enable shelters to be used not just for temporary evacuation but also for short-term stays, the policy also seeks to stockpile supplies including water, food and cots at these shelters.

For small municipalities facing financial constraints, it is no easy task to prepare new shelters. The use of existing facilities for disaster evacuation will help alleviate the burden on municipal governments.

Currently, public facilities, such as government offices and schools, account for 90% of all designated shelters, while facilities owned by private businesses make up only 10%. Underground shelters, which are considered safer than above-ground buildings, account for only 7% of the total, including both public and private facilities.

In South Korea, where progress has been made in setting up underground shelters in preparation for a possible attack by North Korea, there is reportedly enough space to accommodate more than three times the country’s population.

In the future, the Japanese government intends to seek greater cooperation from private-sector entities that own underground facilities to use them as shelters.

However, private-sector entities have expressed concerns over such matters as to what extent they are expected to guide and support evacuees in the event of an emergency. To dispel such concerns, it is crucial for the government to attentively listen to the needs of the private sector.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, April 12, 2026)