Japan to Give 30,000-Yen Aid to Low-Income Households

Jiji Press

17:52 JST, March 22, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government decided on Wednesday to provide low-income households with ¥30,000 in aid as part of additional measures to combat surging prices.

At a meeting of its task force to fight the persistent inflation and secure wage growth, the government also decided to distribute ¥50,000 per child to low-income child-rearing households.

The team, headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, plans spending of over ¥2 trillion out of the government’s discretionary reserve funds under the fiscal 2022 budget to finance the cash relief programs and other measures, including those against the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The package of additional measures will be approved at a cabinet meeting this month.

Kishida was absent from the task force meeting as he was visiting overseas destinations such as Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

“Soaring prices worldwide do not allow optimism,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, acting on behalf of Kishida, told the meeting. Matsuno asked related ministers to take thorough measures.

The government will pay a further ¥1.2 trillion in special grants for regional economies hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which local governments can use flexibly.

Of the amount, ¥500 billion will go to the program to give ¥30,000 to low-income households exempted from residential tax payments.