WAJIMA (Ishikawa Pref.): Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Saturday visited the Noto Peninsula in central Japan, which was hit hard by the Jan. 1 earthquake and heavy rain in September.

It is the first time for the prime minister to visit the peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture since he took office Tuesday.

Ishiba inspected the city of Wajima, where houses were washed away by floods and makeshift housing units built for people affected by the New Year’s Day quake were inundated.

He listened to challenges directly from disaster victims around the Asaichi-dori morning market district in Wajima. The market area was heavily damaged by a massive fire in the earthquake.

The government plans to decide in mid-October additional spending from its reserve funds to provide more aid to areas affected by the disasters.

In Friday’s policy speech at the Diet, Japan’s parliament, Ishiba stressed his determination to redouble efforts to accelerate the reconstruction of the Noto Peninsula to help the region regain the vitality it had before the disasters.

JIJI Press