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On February 3, the 4th supplementary budget for fiscal 2011, amounting to 2.5 trillion yen in total, was approved by a majority vote in the plenary session of the House of Representatives. All parties except the Japanese Communist Party voted in favour of the legislation.
At the start of the session, the Chair of the Committee on Budget, the DPJ’s Hiroshi Nakai, reported on committee deliberations and voting regarding the legislation. Following this, the DPJ’s Seizo Wakaizumi made a speech in favour of the legislation.
At the start of his speech Wakaizumi offered his condolences to the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and of last year’s typhoons and heavy rains, as well as to those forced to endure lives as evacuees in temporary accommodation or in new locations around Japan, those who had had to leave their hometowns due to the accident at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and those who had suffered from this winter’s heavy snows. He stated, “I vow that we Diet members, regardless of affiliation, will support you with all our might.”
With regard to the 4th supplementary budget, Wakaizumi stated that the legislation “had been drafted in order to respond to the additional expenditure required to ensure that the various projects are implemented without omissions, as we reach the end of the current fiscal year.” Specifically, he cited expenditure for the construction of more than 52,000 units of temporary housing for victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake; the restoration of public facilities that had been damaged by last year’s heavy rains that had affected Niigata and Fukushima prefectures, and by Typhoon Roke; financing for small and medium sized businesses that had suffered from the effects of the strong yen/weak euro, and damage caused by the Thai floods; assistance for eco-friendly cars; support for those embarking on new agricultural ventures; revitalization of abandoned agricultural land; necessary expenditure for revitalization of food and agricultural, forestry and farming industries, such as by the provision of funding for experimental projects in the so-called sixth industrial sector; and for the provision of public support for cervical cancer vaccine.
Furthermore, with regard to revenue provision, Wakaizumi said that this could be achieved by using monies from larger than anticipated tax revenues, from consolidation of government assets, and from non-tax revenues, and said that market confidence was assured.
Wakaizumi ended his speech by said, “This supplementary budget is indispensable for the resolution of the issues currently facing Japan. I call for your support.”
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