The Japanese government has decided to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to Ishikawa Prefecture to support rebuilding efforts, five months after a powerful earthquake struck central Japan's Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day.

Farmers in Wajima City are planting rice seedlings in paddy fields. By mid-May, they had finished repairing irrigation waterways damaged by the quake, but farmer Ura Tsuneo says problems remain.

Ura had to level his paddies that were left uneven by the temblor, so he expects planting to take about a month longer than usual.

The government made its decision Friday at a taskforce meeting on the disaster. About 330 million dollars will go into a reconstruction fund to be set up by Ishikawa Prefecture, with the money to come from tax revenues allocated for special needs of local governments.

That amount tops the government's assistance after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, which totaled about 325 million dollars.

The officials also agreed to provide financial assistance to Niigata and Toyama Prefectures, which suffered damage from liquefaction as a result of the quake.