Japan passes third extra budget for post-earthquake reconstruction

Japan passes third extra budget for post-earthquake reconstruction

2011-11-22 11:58:44 GMT+7 (ICT)

TOKYO (BNO NEWS) -- Japan's upper house of parliament on Monday passed the third extra budget for the current fiscal year to finance reconstruction efforts from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, NHK Television reported.

The 12 trillion yen ($156 billion) budget also includes measures to help ease the negative impact of the strong yen. The Japanese government will allocate more than 6 billion dollars to subsidize Japanese companies building new factories in the country in an attempt to encourage Japanese firms not to move factories and related operations overseas.

About 20 billion dollars of the budget will provide financial support for local authorities in disaster-hit areas to implement reconstruction projects. In addition, 3 billion dollars are earmarked for projects to remove radioactive materials from areas affected by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Japan has been facing an ongoing nuclear crisis since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was severely damaged on March 11 when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami devastated the country. The disaster disabled the cooling systems of the plant and radioactive elements leaked into the sea and were later found in water, air and food products in some parts of Japan.

At least 15,839 people were killed as a result of the earthquake and tsunami while 3,642 others remain missing. There are still more than 88,000 people who are staying in shelters in 21 prefectures across Japan.

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