[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] The largest supplementary budget ever compiled by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet passed the National Diet as originally planned on the 20th.
On that day, the House of Councillors, the upper house equivalent in Japan, approved the supplementary budget for fiscal year 2021, which the House of Representatives (lower house) had approved last week. The total amount is 35.9895 trillion yen (approximately 378 trillion won), the largest ever in terms of expenditure. It was passed two weeks after the Kishida cabinet submitted it to the Diet on the 6th.
With the passage of the budget, the policies targeted by the Kishida cabinet will gain momentum. The supplementary budget includes 1.2162 trillion yen for a project that provides 100,000 yen (approximately 1 million won) in support payments to citizens aged 18 and under. Also included are 2.8032 trillion yen for the "Business Revival Support Fund," which gives up to 2.5 million yen to small and medium-sized businesses whose sales plummeted due to COVID-19, and 268.5 billion yen for the tourism support project "Go To Travel."
In addition, a fund of 617 billion yen to support securing semiconductor production bases within Japan and defense-related expenses in the 700 billion yen range passed without amendments.
The Japanese government plans to cover 60% (22.058 trillion yen) of the supplementary budget's funding through government bond issuance. As a result, Japan's new government bond issuance this year is expected to reach 65.655 trillion yen. The total expenditure amount combined with the main budget was also tallied at 142.5992 trillion yen.
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