(Update) Sept. Noto Rain to Be Designated as Severe Disaster: Ishiba

   Wajima, Ishikawa Pref., Oct. 5 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Saturday that the government plans to designate the torrential rain that struck the Noto Peninsula in central Japan in September as a disaster of extreme severity.
   Ishiba announced the plan during a visit to areas damaged heavily by the rain as well as the Jan. 1 powerful earthquake that jolted the peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, following an aid request from Ishikawa Governor Hiroshi Hase, who accompanied him on the inspection tour.
   The designation will raise the central government's subsidy rate for relevant local governments' reconstruction projects for public infrastructure facilities and farmland.
   "It is the responsibility of politics to respond to desperate voices asking 'why are we the only ones who must suffer so much?'" Ishiba told reporters after his first regional visit since taking office Tuesday, adding that his government will make thorough efforts to reconstruct and revitalize the Noto Peninsula region.
   The central government also decided to conduct on behalf of Ishikawa Prefecture restoration work that is too difficult for the prefectural government to handle on its own and to exclude partially destroyed homes from the list of properties subject to demolitions at the expense of residents.

(2024/10/05-19:24)

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