Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet confirmed plans Friday to introduce a second supplementary budget to the Diet soon after the regular session convenes in January, Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.
At an informal session after the day's Cabinet meeting, Kan, also state minister for national policy, requested that other ministers consider concrete steps to include in the extra budget for the current fiscal year through March.
The new extra budget, being planned given the persistent risk of economic deterioration, will mostly target employment, the environment and stimulus measures, Kan told reporters after the meeting.
"I want other Cabinet ministers to be willing to provide me with their opinions," he said.
The second extra budget would follow the existing extra budget, worth ¥14.7 trillion, which was compiled for the current fiscal year under the previous government led by the Liberal Democratic Party.
The Hatoyama government has reviewed the existing extra budget and decided to suspend about ¥3 trillion worth of projects earmarked in it. The money scraped together through the review would be diverted to the new extra budget and the fiscal 2010 budget.