By MALILA Harris
April 03, 2011
JAPAN NEWS - Japan has witnessed a heavy damage following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Considering the emergency need of the country, the parliament has passed a whooping 4tn yen ($49bn, £30bn) emergency budget for resetting the whole region. The bill was passed by the lower house Saturday and consequently passed by the upper house budget committee early on Monday.
The bill is believed to help greatly for housing reconstruction for those who lost their homes. The bill also aims to support businesses hit by the natural carnage.
According to a data prepared by Japanese police, 14,704 people are died in the disaster and another 10,969 remain missing.
Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda expressed his ministry to further raise the budget allocation in coming months. Analysts have predicted that the disaster cost Japan about $300bn.
The budget has also affected on regular funds like pension, child allowances and motorway tolls, which have been cut down to increase the emergency fund.
The good news is the opposition poses no threat to government but the problem will come for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government in near future when the government will have to push high it taxes and to secure reconstruction funds using the borrowed fund. It is reported that Japan has already a debt burden twice the size of its economy.
On the other hand, prime minister have been severely criticized for lagging rehabilitation of people and failure to restore power and supply in the region.
Fukushima nuclear reactor had been crippled after the earthquake damaged the cooling systems to the reactors. Work is still continuing to repair the systems, water being poured into reactors to cool fuel rods, but this would lead to contaminated waste water leaking from the reactor buildings.
It is estimated nine months to bring the plant fully under control.
May 03, 2011 | 1
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