Japan has pledged nearly €359 million to contain leaks and decontaminate radioactive water from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
The pledge is a step up in the government's efforts to cope with the legacy of the worst atomic disaster in a quarter of a century.
The announcement comes just days before the International Olympic Committee decides whether Tokyo - 230km from the wrecked plant - will host the 2020 Olympic Games.
The government is keen to show the crisis is under control.
"The world is watching to see if we can carry out the decommissioning of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, including addressing the contaminated water issues," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told cabinet ministers, who met to approve the plan.
The government intervention represents only a tiny slice of the response to the Fukushima crisis triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which caused reactor meltdowns at the plant.
The clean-up, including decommissioning the ruined reactors, will take decades and rely on unproven technology.
The measures do not address the full problem of water management at the plant or the bigger issue of decommissioning.
The sensitive job of removing spent fuel rods is to start in the coming months.
The ultimate fate of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), also remains unclear, as does the question of who will eventually foot the bill - Japanese taxpayers or the embattled Tepco.
"This is a matter of public safety, so the country has to take the lead on this issue and respond as quickly as possible. Figuring out who to bill for the costs can come later," Economics Minister Akira Amari told a news conference.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a separate news conference that the government would spend a total of 47 billion yen (€359m), including emergency reserve funds from this year's budget.
Of that, 32 billion yen will fund the building of a massive underground wall of frozen earth around the damaged reactors to contain groundwater flows.
The other 15 billion yen will be spent improving a water treatment system meant to drastically reduce radiation levels in the contaminated water.
