The Diet enacted a record ¥31.91 trillion ($298 billion) extra budget Friday, allowing it to scale up measures designed to offset the social and economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic to twice the previous level.
As Japan faces the prospect of a new normal living with the virus, the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, designed to fund an additional package worth about ¥117 trillion, was approved by the House of Councilors.
The Upper House's budget panel endorsed the package, focusing on financial aid for front-line medical staff and subsidies for small businesses, in the morning following its passage through the more powerful House of Representatives on Wednesday with the support of almost all opposition parties.