Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday his government will allocate additional funds of around Â¥100 billion ($665 million) for reconstruction efforts on the Noto Peninsula following the New Year’s Day earthquake.
The emergency spending from reserve funds under the fiscal 2023 budget will finance measures such as expanding the scope of relief payments providing up to ¥6 million per household to help young people as well as families raising children, Kishida told reporters following his second official visit to areas devastated by the magnitude-7.6 quake that hit Ishikawa Prefecture.
The funds will be also used to construct temporary workshops in April to support local traditional industries, he said.
It marks the third time reserve funds have been allocated for recovery efforts after the earthquake, with the combined amount now totaling over ¥260 billion. The additional allocation is expected to be approved by the Cabinet in the coming days.
Those newly eligible for relief payments include households whose homes were partially or totally destroyed and who are having difficulty borrowing funds.
Kishida also said that the construction of prefabricated temporary housing will be accelerated, and that the government will provide support for the reconstruction of the Wajima morning market, which was gutted by a fire caused by the quake, in cooperation with state-linked developer Urban Renaissance Agency.
Traditional industries such as Wajima lacquerware will be supported through the construction of temporary workshops, subsidies of up to ¥1.5 billion for repairs of facilities and production machinery and a fund to cover the procurement of tools and raw materials, he said.