The government will provide relief funds to Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, to help people seriously hit by recent heavy rain, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Thursday.
The decision came a day after Construction Minister Katsutsugu Sekiya, who also heads the National Land Agency, visited Hiroshima Prefecture on Wednesday.
A government fact-finding team has also been sent to Hiroshima Prefecture.
Nonaka said the government will apply a disaster relief law, enacted after the devastating Great Hanshin Earthquake, to Kure for the first time since the legislation took effect.
Based on the law, the government will provide up to 1 million yen per household where the home was seriously damaged.
The government is also considering applying the law to the city of Hiroshima, Nonaka added.
The death toll from this week's torrential downpours across Japan stands at 28, including 23 people who died in Hiroshima Prefecture, according to police.
At least eight other people in Hiroshima Prefecture and one in Okayama Prefecture are still missing, police said, noting more than two dozen people suffered injuries.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi expressed condolences Wednesday for those who died in floods and landslides and his sympathy for people who lost their houses and suffered other damage.
The death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers continue searching for the missing.
The National Police Agency said rain-related property damage has been reported in 34 prefectures since the downpours rain started to lash the archipelago a week ago.