More than 75,000 buildings were damaged in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, in the deadly New Year's Day earthquake. Seven weeks later, many of them have yet to be demolished or repaired.

Muramoto Katsutoshi lives in Suzu City, one of the hardest hit areas.

His house tilted in the quake and is now deemed unsafe.

He had just completed repairs to fix damage caused by a previous quake last year, when the big one hit on January 1.

Muramoto said, "I'm fed up. I got my house repaired after the May earthquake as it seemed I could continue to live there at that time. I don't know what will happen. What will be, will be."

Businesses that perform demolition work were also severely damaged.

Yanagi Kazuhiko runs a wrecking firm in Suzu. His company is only doing debris removal from streets as it is not yet able to demolish damaged buildings.

Yanagi said, "I hope we can recover from the disaster as soon as possible."

All five of his employees have been affected by the disaster. They are staying in a prefabricated hut set up in the company's compound as they work to keep the business running.

One of the employees said, "Our company has roots in the local community and we've earned everyone's trust over the years, so we can't stop working even though we were hit by the disaster."

Ishikawa officials are asking for help from local contractors and from those in neighboring prefectures.

But sources say they are still negotiating over contract prices and other conditions.