The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Someone joked that, because of the high cost of energy, the light at the end of the tunnel would be turned off. Well, now it is turned back on.

Here is what Natsuko Fukue of The Japan Times reports:

"The Diet enacted Monday a ¥2 trillion second extra budget for fiscal 2011 to finance disaster relief and reconstruction since March 11, one of the three conditions laid down by Prime Minister Naoto Kan for his exit.

The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, the main opposition forces, supported the extra budget, whose passage was delayed from Friday due to a boycott last week by LDP lawmakers of a televised Upper House Budget Committee session.

The extra budget, worth ¥1.99 trillion, allocates ¥275.4 billion to pay for damages suffered by victims of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, including money to monitor the health of Fukushima Prefecture residents.

It also earmarks ¥377.4 billion in financial support for quake and tsunami survivors, including securing new loans for indebted individuals and businesspeople who need to rebuild their livelihood or companies. The supplementary budget also sets aside ¥800 billion for postquake reconstruction.

Kan said last month that he would "hand over my responsibility to the younger generation" after passage of three key bills.

The other bills concern issuing deficit-covering bonds and the establishment of a mechanism for power companies to buy solar power at fixed rates."