TOKYO - The Japanese government on Thursday decided on support measures for areas hit by the earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture last month, including a travel subsidy across the country's southwestern main island of Kyushu.
The plan, decided at an emergency disaster response headquarters meeting, will subsidize accommodation and tour costs across all seven prefectures of Kyushu, with the Japan Tourism Agency set to flesh out the details.
The government is eyeing a maximum discount rate of 60 percent for accommodation facilities in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures, with the other five prefectures to be capped at 50 percent, according to government sources.
The Cabinet is set to approve on Friday the release of 147.8 billion yen ($927 million) in reserve funds from the fiscal 2026 budget to fund the package.
Similar to discount campaigns implemented after the 2016 Kumamoto and the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquakes, the government will cover part of the costs of travel up to a cap.
To counter reputational damage to the tourism industry, it plans to work with local governments to boost visitor demand. As a stopgap ahead of the discount program, the government said it would "support Kumamoto Prefecture's efforts toward an early recovery in demand for dining out."
The impact of last month's magnitude-7.1 earthquake on tourism has been severe. According to the Kyushu Economic Research Center, the number of domestic visitors to Kumamoto Prefecture from Aug. 1 to 7 fell 23 percent from the same period a year earlier to around 672,000.
The value of accommodation cancellations had reached approximately 2.7 billion yen as of last Friday, according to the prefecture.
The government package also includes subsidies for repairing wells, rebuilding homes and supporting small and midsize businesses.
According to the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, 75 percent of restoration costs for factories, stores and production machinery will be subsidized, while a special measure will provide full subsidies for businesses hit multiple times by past earthquakes and floods.
