As bureaucrats and business executives attempt to gauge the economic cost of the quakes in Kyushu, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday raised the possibility of rapidly compiling a supplementary budget to render assistance to the area.

"The government would like to take every necessary measure" to assist quake-hit areas centering on Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, Abe told an opposition lawmaker in the Diet in response to a query on the issue.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said separately that Tokyo will try to release local tax grants earlier than scheduled and use ¥350 billion in reserve funds set aside for the 2016 budget to help out governments in Kyushu.