— Opening of Reconstruction Agency June 4 — Osamu Fujimura became the agency's second Minister of State for Disaster Management Structure (Minato-ku, Tokyo) (Morioka, Iwate Prefecture) (Miyako, Iwate Prefecture) (Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture) (Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture) (Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture) (Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture) (Fukushima, Fukushima Prefecture) (Minamisōma, Fukushima Prefecture) (Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture) (Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture) (Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture) Criticism The establishment of the Reconstruction Agency received criticism for both the slow pace of its establishment, and for the location of its headquarters. Residents and officials in regions affected by the disaster, notably Yūhei Satō, governor of Fukushima Prefecture, publicly noted the lack of speed in which the agency was created: Legislation in the National Diet to establish the agency was slowed by the resignation of Prime Minister Naoto Kan in September 2011. The bill to create the agency passed in December 2011, nine months after the disaster occurred, delaying the opening of the agency until February 2012. Kan acknowledged the slow pace of government response to the disaster on March 3, 2011, and pledged to speed up recovery efforts. Residents displaced by the tsunami have opposed Agency-led plans to rebuild towns on higher land away from the coast, and see it as a disconnect between the central government and the population in the Tōhoku region. After a strict review of initial projects, the Agency approved a large number of projects in a second round of reviews in May 2012, including funds for urban and agricultural renewal. Ministers Tatsuo Hirano (1st: February 10, 2012 - December 26, 2012) Takumi Nemoto (2nd: December 26, 2012 - September 3, 2014) Wataru Takeshita (3rd: September 3, 2014 - October 7, 2015) Tsuyoshi Takagi (4th: October 7, 2015 - August 3, 2016) Masahiro Imamura (5th: August 3, 2016 - April 26, 2017) Masayoshi Yoshino (6th: April 26, 2017 - October 2, 2018) Hiromichi Watanabe (7th: October 2, 2018 - September 11, 2019) Kazunori Tanaka (8th: September 11, 2019 - September 16, 2020) Katsuei Hirasawa (9th: September 16, 2020 - October 4, 2021) Kosaburo Nishime (10th: October 4, 2021 - ) Kenya Akiba (11th) TBD (12th) Deputy Ministers Hiroyuki Togashi (2022) Hideki Niizuma (2022) Takeyuki Watanabe (2022) See also 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan Yoshihiko Noda Tatsuo Hirano References External links Official sites Publications 2012 establishments in Japan Ministries established in 2012 Government ministries of Japan Government agencies