Red Tape Slowing
陸前高田市の市長がいっこうに進まない復興作業に業を煮やしています。もっともなことです。
Rikuzentakata Mayor: Red Tape Slowing Disaster Zone Recovery
Even during the dark days following the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that rocked his coastal city, Rikuzentakata Mayor Futoshi Toba imagined that with time — one or two years — he would see progress toward recovery.
But as the two-year anniversary of the March 11 disaster approaches, Mr. Toba said he is frustrated that Rikuzentakata is nowhere near the recovery he imagined, slowed by red tape and a weakening sense of urgency to rebuild Japan’s disaster zone.
In comments made this week in Tokyo, he said the city — still reeling from the giant tsunami that killed 1,800 of its residents and washed away scores of businesses and homes — needs help. The gutted remains of destroyed buildings still dot the city’s lower basin and about 2,200 families live in temporary homes, he said.
“The biggest impediment is the lack of a sense of speed,” Mr. Toba told JRT on Friday, expanding on a speech he made at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on Thursday.
注目したいのは見出しのRed Tape Slowingという表現です。red tapeは昔、英国で公文書を赤いひもでしばっていたことに由来する、「官僚的形式主義，お役所ふうの面倒な手続き」という意味の英検２級レベルの言い回しですが、ここでは形容詞的に使ってあります。言ってみれば、「役所流の」「形式ばかりを重んじる」あたりでしょうか。これは先生から昔、教わったことですが、反対に官僚側はred tapeを"procedural safeguards"と呼ぶそうです。ものは言い様の好例です。（EnDough）
