Akhir 22, 1432 / March 27, 2011, SPA -- Japan's national government said Sunday it would shoulder all costs of reconstruction in the north-eastern region devastated by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami, as dpa reported. Tokyo is also studying measures that would cover nearly all costs of clearing debris in the region. Those would exceed the 7.3-magnitude quake that struck the western city of Kobe in 1995, Yukihiko Akutsu, parliamentary secretary for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's cabinet, was quoted by Jiji Press as saying. Tokyo covered 97.5 per cent of the costs of clearing debris after the Kobe earthquake, which killed more than 6,400 people, Jiji said. Kobe however was not hit by a tsunami.
