Tokyo: The Japanese government at a cabinet meeting Tuesday decided to use 4,737.9 million yen out of reserve funds set aside under its fiscal 2023 budget to support people affected by the powerful earthquake that hit central Japan on New Year’s Day.

It plans to use the funds to provide food, drinking water and other relief supplies, and transport fuel to areas hit by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake, which mainly struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture.

The government can decide how to use budget reserves without deliberation in the Diet, the country’s parliament. Some 460 billion yen remains unused under its budget for fiscal 2023, which ends in March.

“We will take necessary financial measures as needed to promptly provide full-fledged support to affected people,” Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki told a press conference.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has ordered an increase in reserves earmarked under the government’s fiscal 2024 draft budget from 500 billion yen. He has also instructed the compilation of a package of measures aimed at helping disaster victims rebuild their lives and work.

On Tuesday, the National Tax Agency announced an extension of the deadlines for national tax declarations and payments for people and organization paying taxes in Ishikawa and neighboring Toyama Prefecture, which was also stricken by the Jan. 1 earthquake.

JIJI Press