Diet Enacts 18.3-T.-Yen Extra Budget for Stimulus Package

Tokyo, Dec. 16 (Jiji Press)–The Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Tuesday enacted the government’s 18.3-trillion-yen supplementary budget for fiscal 2025, which will finance the first comprehensive economic package under the leadership of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. General-account spending under the extra budget totals 18,303.4 billion yen, a record high excluding the COVID-19 pandemic years, as the Takaichi administration pursues a “responsible and proactive” fiscal policy. Over 60 pct of the budget will be funded by selling government bonds. The budget features a 2-trillion-yen increase in regional subsidies for local governments to use at their discretion, and allocates 367.7 billion yen to provide an additional child allowance of 20,000 yen per child. At a plenary meeting on Tuesday, the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, approved the budget by a majority vote, with support from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin no Kai), and opposition parties including the Democratic Party for the People and Komeito. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Sanseito voted against the budget. The Upper House passage came after the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, approved the budget last week and before the ongoing extraordinary Diet session ends on Wednesday. Prior to the plenary meeting, the Upper House Budget Committee held intensive deliberations on the budget, attended by Takaichi. During the committee meeting, an opposition lawmaker demanded that Takaichi withdraw her recent remark on a possible Taiwan contingency, which has angered China. The prime minister rejected the demand, saying that the government has repeatedly explained that it will determine whether a Taiwan crisis constitutes a survival-threatening situation for Japan on a case-by-case basis and based on all available information. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]