On Monday, Industry Minister Ken Saito said he would dispatch senior officials including Yoshifumi Murase, commissioner of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, to the prefecture to seek support for restarting the world's biggest nuclear plant.

The Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) plant has been offline since 2012 after the Fukushima disaster a year earlier led to the shutdown of all nuclear plants in Japan at the time.

"I would like to deepen the discussion on restarting the plant and carefully assess how the people of the prefecture will perceive it," Hanazumi was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency after meeting with Murase on Thursday.

Energy-poor Japan is aiming to bring back more nuclear power as it strives to cut emissions, lower imports of fossil fuels, and cut the cost of producing electricity.

But a powerful earthquake struck Japan's Ishikawa prefecture on Jan. 1 causing water spills from spent nuclear fuel pools and oil leaks at an idled nuclear plant in the Hokuriku region, sowing fresh doubt about safety.

Hanazumi will make a decision after ongoing discussions on safety measures, evacuation procedures, and other issues, while listening to opinions from locals, a Niigata prefecture official quoted him as saying to Reuters.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will do its utmost to restore public trust in nuclear energy, Saito said in a letter to the governor handed over by Murase, adding that the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant was essential for power supplies in eastern Japan where no nuclear reactors have been restarted.

The governor gave no indication of whether he would agree to a restart, nor when he would make a decision, the prefecture official said.