ニュース 2010/01/28 Upper House approves supplementary budget by majority vote On January 28, the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2009 passed the House of Councillors, in a majority vote of 142 for and 82 against. Prior to this, the Chair of the Committee on Budget, DPJ Diet member Susumu Yanase, reported on the proceeding and results of the debate in the committee. He said that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had defined the basic philosophy behind the management of the nation in saying that he would aim for a society that pursues happiness. DPJ member of the House of Councillors Kusuo Oshima made a speech in favour of the legislation. In his speech he thanked the opposition parties for their cooperation in enabling the supplementary budget to be passed at an early date, but also commented that questions which aimed to gather the attention of the TV cameras and the mass media were not befitting the House of Councillors considering its position as the house of wisdom. Oshima said that the debate over this budget should really have focused on whether the budget would be helpful to the elderly, or whether it contained sufficient provisions for unemployment allowances. Oshima went on to cite his reasons for supporting the legislation, saying that this supplementary budget was not one that allocated funds to various organizations with an eye to gaining their electoral support, but one created to assist people’s livelihoods, and that it contained specific measures aimed at the long-term unemployed and school-leavers, at environmental energy fields such as wind power, and at providing preferential interest rates for financing of SMEs.