TOKYO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Japan's government decided Tuesday to tap about 24.2 billion yen (about 153 million U.S. dollars) in reserve funds to support areas devastated by a powerful earthquake that struck the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto a week ago, local media reported.
The cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gave the green light Tuesday on the use of fiscal 2026 budget's reserve funds, totaling about 1 trillion yen, whose usage the government can decide on without parliamentary deliberations, Jiji Press said.
Some 20.6 billion yen will be spent on the repairs of damaged roads, bridges, and public facilities to facilitate emergency access, the report said.
About 2.4 billion yen are allocated for food, drinking water, portable showers, cardboard beds, and spot coolers for evacuees, while 1.2 billion yen are directed toward constructing and providing temporary housing units handled by the Kumamoto prefectural government.
A week on from the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture, over 8,000 people still remain in evacuation shelters as water outages persisted amid extreme heat on Tuesday.
According to local authorities, the death toll from the temblor that struck on July 28 stands at 38, including two cases still under investigation as to whether they were caused directly by the earthquake. ■