TOKYO, April 24 (Reuters) - Restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan's Niigata prefecture would bring economic benefits of 439.6 billion yen ($2.84 billion) for the area, Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday, citing its governor.

Hideyo Hanazumi, the prefecture's governor, was quoted as saying that these benefits will be one of factors for discussion to restart the nuclear power plant's No. 6 and No. 7 reactors.

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

Tepco needs consent from Niigata prefecture to resume operations. The prefecture's governor said last month that more talks were needed over the possible restart of the nuclear power plant. ($1 = 154.8100 yen) (Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Sonia Cheema)