After two and a half months of deliberation, the Reconstruction Design Council on June 25 submitted to Prime Minister Naoto Kan a set of proposals for the reconstruction of the Tohoku-Pacific coastal region, which was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and Fukushima Prefecture, which is suffering from the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The time has come for the government, which has been slow to respond to the disasters, to push reconstruction at full speed.
Mr. Kan and his Cabinet members and aides must make strenuous efforts to put the reconstruction on a smooth path: flesh out the council's proposals by working out the details of bills needed to implement them, and writing second and third fiscal 2011 supplementary budgets to pay for the effort.