Japan earthquakes: Cabinet to approve reserved funds for aid next week, says PM Kishida
File photo.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday (Jan 4) that his cabinet would approve next week the use of its reserved funds to cover damages from the series of major earthquakes in Central Japan earlier this week. Prime Minister Kishida said the figure (of the funds) to be considered in next week's meeting would be about double the roughly $13.95 million (2 billion yen) deployed in each of similar past disasters, from earthquakes to heavy rain.
On New Year's Day on Monday (Jan 1), many earthquakes struck Japan's central region with the biggest one of magnitude 7.5on the Richter scale. A total of 81 people died, and at least 330 others were injured. On Thursday, authorities published a list of 79 people whose whereabouts were unknown, the news agency AFP reported.
Prime Minister Kishida called the quakes the "worst catastrophe" in the current Reiwa era in the Japanese calendar. "The situation remains difficult, but we will continue to do our utmost to support the victims," he added.
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The AFP report said that hundreds of people in more than a dozen communities remained cut off in Ishikawa prefecture. Around 30,000 people in Ishikawa were without power, and 95,000 homes there and in two neighbouring regions had no water.
The prefecture's Governor Hiroshi Hase told a disaster management meeting on Thursday that 72 hours after the earthquakes, "the survival rate of those in need of rescue is said to drop precipitously."
In the coastal towns of Anamizu and Wajima, thousands of rescue personnel including firefighters, police officers and soldiers combed through the rubble of collapsed wooden houses and toppled commercial buildings for signs of life.
Willing to help Japan on quakes: China
The Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it was willing to provide help to Japan on the earthquakes. Addressing a press conference, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that there had been no Chinese casualties reported on the disaster.