Japan Press Weekly

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2021 March 24 - 30 [POLITICS]

2021 budget that spends more on military buildup than on anti-corona measures enacted

The government-proposed budget bill for FY 2021 was passed and enacted on March 26 at the House of Councilors plenary meeting by majority vote of the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties. Major opposition parties including the Japanese Communist Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party for Japan, the Nippon Ishin no Kai party, and the Democratic Party for the People opposed the bill.

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Yamazoe Taku in discussions prior to the vote opposed the bill by saying that while the budget allocation for measures to cope with the pandemic is insufficient, the money allocated to military buildup exceeded five trillion yen. Yamazoe also criticized the 2021 budget for taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to contain many non-essential items such as the cost for the promotion of the unpopular Social Security and Tax number (My Number) system.

Yamazoe pointed out that the government should draft policies and a budget centering on measures to prevent a possible 4th wave of COVID-19 from hitting Japan. He demanded frequent testing at elderly care facilities and medical institutions, a drastic expansion of monitoring, testing, and variant testing, and a measure to compensate medical institutions for loss of income. He also demanded government measures to ease hardships on people’s livelihoods and businesses which became more serious under the prolonged pandemic situation. His demand includes the provision of cash benefits and subsidies that help smaller companies to stay in business, an improvement of financial support for culture and arts, and a revision of the subsidy program for workers without leave allowance so that non-regular workers at large corporations who work agreed-upon number of days will be covered.

Furthermore, Yamazoe referred to the issue in which many errors were found in 24 government-introduced bills and one treaty. He said, “This unprecedented issue represents the government stance to disregard the Diet. Basic assumptions needed to discuss the budget bill and other government-draft bills were shattered,” demanding a probe into all bills so far introduced in the Diet.

Past related article:
> Suga gov’t 2021 budget draft puts importance on military buildup over public need to overcome COVID-19 crisis[December 22, 2020]