JCP Kokuta says 14 trillion yen supplementary budget will not help economic recovery

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP Kokuta says 14 trillion yen supplementary budget will not help economic recovery

A 14 trillion yen supplementary budget was enacted on May 29. For all its vast size, the additional budget has been widely criticized because it only will help major corporations, while scattering small amounts of money ostensibly to help low income earners and other socially disadvantaged people.

Following its passage through the House of Representatives on March 27, the budget bill was rejected in the opposition-controlled House of Councilors on May 29.

Because the subsequent conference between the two chambers of the Diet did not reach agreement, the decision of the House of Representatives became the decision of the Diet.

Speaking on behalf of the JCP, Daimon Mikishi at the conference insisted that the extra budget bill has critical defects, despite the cash handouts, which would have only temporary effect on livelihoods. He said that most of the extra budgetary measures will be used to favor major corporations and that it depends on issuing huge deficit-covering government bonds, which will be used to justify the government plan to raise the consumption tax rate.

* * *

Commenting on the passage of the government's additional budget bill through the House of Representatives on May 29, Kokuta Keiji, JCP Diet Policy Commission chair, made the following comment:

"The supplementary budget, if enacted, will have adverse effects on people's living conditions as well as Japan's economic recovery."

"The need now is for the House of Representatives to be dissolved without delay for a general election so that the Diet may directly listen to the needs of the public."

- Akahata, May 30, 2009