Ednews reports, referring to La Tribune, that the cost of the damage caused by the violent earthquake that struck central Japan on 1 January, killing more than 230 people, should be between 6.9 and 16.2 billion euros, according to an estimate by the Japanese government.

Japan is still assessing the damage caused by the earthquake that struck at the heart of the country at the start of the year. The natural disaster caused damage to buildings and infrastructure (roads, airports, networks, etc.) in the Ishikawa prefecture, which was the worst hit, as well as in the two neighbouring prefectures of Toyama and Niigata. The cost of the damage is expected to be between 6.9 and 16.2 billion euros.

The figures are still within a very wide range "because we are still in the process of assessing the damage", said a government official on Friday. He added that the report had been presented at a cabinet meeting on Thursday. According to observers, this is partly why the Bank of Japan (BoJ) left its ultra-accommodating monetary policy unchanged on Tuesday, even though the economic impact of the disaster is likely to be limited.

The total cost is expected to be much lower than that of the gigantic earthquake and tsunami in north-east Japan in 2011. At that time, the Japanese government put the figure at 16,900 billion yen (or 147 billion euros at the time). However, this estimate did not take into account the disruption to economic activity or the nuclear accident at Fukushima caused by the tsunami, the costs of which (environmental decontamination work, dismantling the plant over several decades, compensation for evacuees, etc.) could ultimately run into several hundred billion euros.

On Thursday, the government also finalised measures to improve the immediate living conditions of people evacuated after the earthquake on the 1st of January, rebuild the affected areas and revitalise tourism in the region.