The Environment Ministry will aid the Ishikawa Prefectural Government's plan to establish a long-distance hiking trail as part of reconstruction efforts following the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake, ministry officials have said.

Through its assistance in fiscal 2025, the ministry hopes to back the reconstruction of the Noto Peninsula quasi-national park, which is among the areas in Ishikawa Prefecture damaged by the 7.6 magnitude quake, in a bid to encourage tourism using local resources.

The ministry plans to secure ¥900 million as related expenses in its fiscal 2025 budget request.

In its reconstruction plan announced in May this year, the Ishikawa government said that it will redevelop the Noto Peninsula park, including a project to set up a nature trail.

The prefecture hopes that the project will contribute to preserving and utilizing as local resources both the satoyama managed forests, for which the Noto region is famous, and coastal bumps formed by the temblor.

The ministry has aided the establishment of the 1,025-kilometer Michinoku Coastal Trail running through the four prefectures along the Pacific Ocean coast in the Tohoku region that were hit especially hard by the March 2011 massive earthquake and tsunami.

Hoping to use data and know-how gained from this project, the ministry plans to give financial support and technical advice to Ishikawa Prefecture.

Long-distance trail hiking is popular in Europe and the United States. Many in Japan are pinning hopes on it as a catalyst for regional revitalization because such trails are seen attracting people from other regions.

For Ishikawa Prefecture's reconstruction, the ministry is also eyeing assistance to projects to establish the crested ibis population in the prefecture and release the birds, protected as a national treasure, into the wild.