Upper House of Diet Begins Deliberations on FY25 Budget Bill; Iwate Pref. Wildfires May Be Designated as ‘Major Disaster’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:25 JST, March 5, 2025

The House of Councillors’ Budget Committee began deliberations on the revised fiscal 2025 budget bill on Wednesday with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and all of his Cabinet members in attendance.

In the morning, the committee held a basic question-and-answer session.

Ishiba, who is also the president of the Liberal Democratic Party, said that he is considering designating the large-scale mountain wildfires in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, as a major disaster.

Regarding the wildfires that continue to burn in the city, Ishiba said, “I am looking at [designating them] as a major disaster. The government will consider quick and appropriate responses in a way that the monetary burdens of affected local governments can be minimized.”

The designation would raise the percentage of the central government’s subsidies for the cost of reconstruction work undertaken by the local governments.

On the issue of capping the maximum amount of co-payments for patients under the high-cost medical expense benefit system, Ishiba asked for understanding about a planned revision.

“I will try to strike a balance between making the system sustainable and preventing affected patients from giving up on receiving medical care,” Ishiba said.

The government intends to raise the upper limits of such patients’ co-payments as scheduled in August, but it plans to reexamine how to handle the revision after August next year by around autumn this year.

When he was encouraged to hold a meeting with cancer patients, Ishiba took a positive stance, saying “I want to arrange the schedule.”

All of Ishiba’s remarks were made in answers to questions from Masayo Tanabu, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s secretary general of its upper house caucus.