The government on Monday designated the series of powerful earthquakes that have rocked Kyushu as a disaster of "extreme severity," paving the way for affected communities to receive increased subsidies for recovery efforts.

The designation allows the central government to offer additional financial assistance to disaster-hit municipalities for rebuilding infrastructure such as roads and riverbanks as well as agricultural facilities like farmland.

For the repair of roads and dikes, the central government will cover some 80 percent of the total costs and will shoulder about 90 percent of the spending for rebuilding agricultural facilities and farmland.