A nonpartisan group of lawmakersconsisting of four opposition parties submitted a bill June 3 to the Diet aimed at providing financial aid to households that have seen their income considerably reduced due to the Great Hanshin Earthquake in January 1995.
The bill replaced another, similar bill submitted last month by the same group of lawmakers, who belong to Shinshinto, the Democratic Party of Japan, the Taiyo Party and another small parliamentary group.
The new bill, which is much smaller in terms of the size of financial assistance than the original one, was intended to improve its chances of being passed by obtaining wider support from lawmakers at a time when the nation is trying to reduce its worsening fiscal deficit, said Kazuyoshi Akaba, a Lower House member of Shinshinto who played a leading role in drafting the bill. Proposed support measures in the new bill include a one-time payment of 500,000 yen per member of a household whose annual income for fiscal 1996 was less than two thirds of that of fiscal 1994.