Japan's 131 Trillion Yen Supplementary Budget Bill Passes House of Representatives... Upper House Expected to Approve Within the Year

Amendment Passed After 28 Years

The Japanese government's supplementary budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year (April 2024 to March 2025) was approved on the 12th at the House of Representatives plenary session, amounting to 13.9433 trillion yen (approximately 131 trillion won). The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which failed to secure a majority in the recent general election, and its coalition partner Komeito passed the supplementary budget with the cooperation of some opposition parties.

Yonhap News

The LDP and Komeito accepted some demands from the main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party, and prepared and passed an amendment to allocate 100 billion yen (approximately 93.9 billion won) from the contingency fund for the restoration of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, which was hit by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in January this year. Local media reported that it was the first time in 28 years since 1996 that a budget proposal was amended and passed during parliamentary deliberations. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said, "I am grateful that it was passed with the support of many parties through deliberation."

The Asahi Shimbun analyzed that the Ishiba administration repeatedly made concessions to the opposition, enabling the supplementary budget to be passed without major confusion even under a minority ruling party system. However, the newspaper also reported that there are complaints within the LDP that "too many concessions were made to the opposition."

Since the LDP and Komeito hold a majority in the House of Councillors, Nikkei forecasted a high possibility of the supplementary budget being passed within the year.

Meanwhile, Jiji Press reported on the same day that a public opinion poll conducted from the 6th to the 9th through individual interviews with 1,152 people aged 18 and over showed that the approval rating of the Ishiba Cabinet fell by 1.9 percentage points from the previous month to 26.8%. The percentage of those who do not support the Cabinet rose by 3 percentage points to 41.3%. Regarding whether it is desirable for the ruling party to cooperate with the opposition to pass budgets and bills following the general election results, 44.1% answered "agree," while 30.1% answered "disagree."