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Japan cabinet OKs second disaster recovery budget
  • | AFP | July 05, 2011 07:15 PM

Japan\'s cabinet on Tuesday approved a two trillion yen ($24 billion) second special budget to finance relief and rebuilding after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

A woman visits the disaster zone in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, devastated by the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami along Japan\'s northeastern coast.

Already facing a mountain of public debt, the government will not issue fresh bonds to finance the supplementary budget to March 2012 but plans to instead divert funds left over from last year.

The budget sets aside 800 billion yen in reserve for reconstruction, and 275 billion yen to tackle the Fukushima nuclear crisis, including compensation for victims and health checks for local residents.

The crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant has been spewing radiation since the massive quake and tsunami knocked out reactor cooling systems, forcing around 85,000 people to leave a 20-kilometre (12-mile) zone around the plant.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan\'s cabinet plans to submit the budget to parliament on July 15 and aims to pass it by the end of the month.

In May, Japan passed a four trillion yen extra budget, the first since the disaster hit and left more than 22,000 people dead or missing. The government plans a third extra budget later this year, set to be the biggest.

Under Japanese law the powerful lower house can push through budget bills even if they are opposed by the upper house, now held by the opposition.

Japan has the industrialised world\'s largest debt, at around 200 percent of gross domestic product, after years of pump-priming by governments trying in vain to arrest the economy\'s long decline since the early 1990s.

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