Noda urges rest of nation to accept rubble from quake-stricken region via The Asahi Shimbun

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has called on local governments across the nation to accept debris from quake-stricken northeastern Japan to help share the enormous burden of disposal work and move forward with the reconstruction process.

“Governments in the affected region have a limit to their ability of get rid of the wreckage on their own,” Noda said at a news conference on Feb. 10. “Municipalities across the nation must take in debris that is not dangerous in order to share the burden.”

Noda said the Tokyo metropolitan government as well as prefectural authorities in Yamagata and Shizuoka are cooperating with the disposal of mountains of rubble created by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

But most prefectures have been reluctant to cooperate, citing possible contamination as a result of the leakage of radioactive materials from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and other health risks.

Noda said he instructed each of his ministers of state to call on local governments to cooperate.

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