Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2020 April 15 - 21 [POLITICS]

Pushed by opposition parties, gov’t revises supplementary draft budget to strengthen anti-corona efforts

The Abe Cabinet on April 20 approved the revised 2020 supplementary draft budget together with the revised emergency economic package to fight the impact of the coronavirus crisis. The revision of the supplementary budget was made to provide a cash benefits of 100,000 yen to all residents in Japan.

Under the initial supplementary draft budget and economic package, which received Cabinet approval on April 7, the government intended to pay 300,000 yen to households whose income decreased substantially due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This plan immediately attracted fierce public criticism as it was designed to provide financial assistance to only designated households and would create a sense of unfairness. As a result, the government had to listen to the demands of general public and opposition parties calling for the government to provide monetary support to everyone.

The amount of the general account of the revised supplementary draft budget stands at 25.7 trillion yen, up 8.9 trillion yen from the initial 16.8 trillion-yen draft.

Commenting on the Cabinet approval of the revised draft budget, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on the same day said to the press, “Public opinion has successfully pushed the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties to amend the draft budget already approved by the Cabinet. This is epoch making.”

Koike also urged the government to take measures so that employees, self-employed, and freelancers will be able to receive at least 80% of what they earned before the coronavirus outbreak. Regarding a government subsidy program to help businesses keep afloat, Koike said that it is necessary to offer a larger amount of financial support to a wider range of businesses in order to help them pay their rent and utility charges. He also pointed out that this kind of state subsidies should be continued as long as necessary.

Koike pointed out that under the revised draft budget, the government plans to use only 149 billion yen in total to support medical facilities and workers as well as to boost PCR testing capacity. He said that the government should increase the budget allocation drastically in this regard. Koike stressed that the JCP will make joint efforts with other opposition parties to achieve a drastic revision of the draft budget.

Past related articles:
> JCP Koike talks about prevention of healthcare collapse over coronavirus outbreak and need to increase testing rate [ April 11, 2020]
> Compensation for loss of income essential for gov’t emergency coronavirus measures: JCP [April 7, 2020]