Japanese government has slashed funding earmarked for fortifying school buildings against earthquakes, according to a newspaper report on Tuesday.

To carry out election pledge of cutting education costs made by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Cabinet has slashed the funding for reinforcing school buildings by about 63 percent to 103.2 billion yen (US$1.12 billion) from an original allotted amount of 277.5 billion yen, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

Of the 5,000 middle and high schools selected for needing structural, anti-seismic improvements, only 2,800 of these schools will now be receiving earthquake-resistant upgrades.

The previous administration led by the Liberal Democratic Party had actively increased subsidies for school reinforcements, as the party came under fire in the wake of the Kobe earthquake in 1995 which left 6,434 people dead.

Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. The country is hit by an average of 1500 earthquakes per year of varying magnitude.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2009)