Tokyo: The Japanese government will use about 150 billion yen from its fiscal 2023 contingency reserves to expand support for areas hit by the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday.

The government will make a decision on the spending as early as Friday, Kishida told an off-session meeting on the disaster at the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament.

In response to the disaster, which mainly affected the central Japan prefecture of Ishikawa, the government has already decided to use 4.7 billion yen from the reserves. It has also revised its fiscal 2024 draft budget to double the reserves planned for the coming fiscal year to 1 trillion yen.

Kishida referred to a package of livelihood support measures for disaster-affected people that the government plans to draw up as early as Thursday.

Fiscal resources to implement the measures will be prepared flexibly in stages using the contingency reserves, he said.

During the off-session meeting, Kenta Izumi, president of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, called for increasing relief money for households whose homes have been completely or partially destroyed.

“We’ll consider providing additional support according to the actual situation. We’ll share an awareness of where the problems lie and work out concrete measures as soon as possible,” Kishida replied.

On the certificates that disaster victims can use to get public assistance, Kishida said the government will work to simplify surveys to assess how badly homes were damaged by using aerial photographs and checking many homes in a given area together.

Also on Wednesday, the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, also held an off-session on the quake disaster.

JIJI Press