More than two months have passed since Nagoya started sending its officials to support the understaffed municipal government in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, where 68 out of its 295 employees were killed in the March quake and tsunami or remain missing.
Under the program, the Nagoya reinforcements have been gradually gaining the trust of the survivors, but they have also encountered problems.
In some cases, officials can't meet the expectations of the community because the duration of their stay is too short. In others, their assistance doesn't match what the survivors are really hoping for, resulting in them being regarded as "intrusive help."