Recovery and reconstruction efforts following major natural disasters take years and large sums of money to complete, and the magnitude 6.7 quake that rocked Hokkaido earlier this month is unlikely to be an exception.
Shoichiro Miyasaka, mayor of Atsuma, where massive landslides engulfed homes following the Sept. 6 quake, said repairs to roads and farmland will require "at least" tens of billions of yen.
Thirty-six of the 41 deaths reported in the prefecture occurred in Atsuma, and 445 of some 4,600 residents of the farming town were still evacuated from their homes as of Friday.