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2010/03/02
Budget for fiscal 2010 approved by Lower House
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On March 2, a plenary session of the House of Representatives was convened, and the budget for fiscal 2010 and related legislation were all passed by a majority vote.
This budget, in contrast to those of previous administrations, has been drafted to fulfill the philosophy “from concrete to human beings”. It includes provisions that greatly increase funding on child-rearing and social security, such as the child allowance, making high-school education free in practice, and measures to deal with the issue of pension records, along with measures to enact a large-scale reduction in spending on public works projects such as dam construction.
DPJ member of the House of Representatives Toshiaki Koizumi, at the start of his speech in favour of the main budget bill, expressed his condolences for the victims of the Chilean earthquake disaster. He went on to praise the legislation, saying: “This budget differs from the excessive “market fundamentalism” seen since the time of the Koizumi Cabinet, which focused on “helping the strong and crushing the weak” and weakened Japan. It boldly proclaims a dramatic shift toward policies that will restore Japan’s economy from the perspective of ‘Putting People’s Lives First’.” He added, “The best economic measure, and the only way that we can restore Japan’s economy, is to steadily implement the policies called for in our Manifesto,” calling for the Lower House to approve the budget in order to bring security and vitality to the lives of the Japanese people.
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