Japan Lawmakers Add $28Bln to FY15 Budget to Soften TPP's Impact - Reports

Lawmakers in Japan have adopted an extra budget adding an equivalent of $28 billion for fiscal year 2015 to boost welfare services and the farm sector, and to soften the impact of the controversial US-led TPP trade agreement, national media reported Wednesday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) – Ruling party and coalition partners in the upper house passed the 3.32-trillion yen supplementary budget to help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe implement key policies, according to the Kyodo news service. These policies include spending $9.9 billion to support child-rearing and prevent employees from quitting to take care of elderly family members by boosting nursing care services.

Some $2.9 billion is planned to be spent on increasing Japan’s competitiveness and soften the economic blow anticipated by the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, whose wording has been agreed to late last year.

Up to $7 billion is earmarked on restoring regions hit by the deadly earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and the remaining $119 million to ensure security at the May G7 summit.

National Diet lawmakers vote on the budget for FY2016, which starts on April 1, on January 22.