Japan Press Weekly

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2020 January 29 - February 4 [POLITICS]

90% of military spending allotted by supplementary budget is to buy arms

A government supplementary budget draft for fiscal 2019 passed the Diet on January 30 by a majority vote of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Komei Party, and the "Nippon Ishi no Kai". The budget totals more than 4.47 trillion yen.

Prior to the vote, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Iwabuchi Tomo spoke in opposition to the draft, citing the military budget as the biggest reason for objection. She pointed out that 90% of military spending incorporated in the supplementary budget draft is for installment purchases of weapons.

She, however, said that a supplementary budget itself is necessary in order to deal with, for example, disaster recovery, demanding that the government use the money to improve the support system for reconstructing the livelihoods of disaster victims. She also demanded that the government seriously address the challenge of climate change and shift its energy policy to one centering on renewables from the present coal-fired thermal power and nuclear power.