Society

Japanese government submits massive extra budget to fight coronavirus

Apr 28 (Japan Times) - The government on Monday submitted to parliament a Y25.69 trillion ($240 billion) reworked supplementary budget to fund a package of emergency measures aimed at mitigating the economic impacts of COVID-19.

The draft budget, approved by the Cabinet on April 20, was boosted from the original Â¥16.81 trillion due to a sudden policy shift by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to provide Â¥100,000 to all residents instead of a plan to give Â¥300,000 to households whose income had fallen sharply.

The extra budget for fiscal 2020 is expected to be approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, even though the day is a national holiday, and to be enacted the following day after passage in the House of Councillors.

It will be the first time for the Diet to convene a session on a weekend or national holiday in about nine years. The last time it did so was to deliberate a draft extra budget following the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region in 2011.

â€œThe virus infections have been exerting an enormous impact on the domestic and overseas economies, and the extremely severe situation is expected to continue until we can see signs of the outbreak coming to an end,â€ Finance Minister Taro Aso said Monday in a speech to the lower house.

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