Japan's lower house OKs record 106.61 tril. yen budget for FY 2021

Japan's lower house approved Tuesday a 106.61 trillion yen ($1 trillion) draft budget for fiscal 2021, its largest ever as the need for spending on coronavirus countermeasures comes on top of already huge welfare and defense costs.Following passage by the House of Representatives, the initial general-account budget moves to the House of Councillors for deliberations and is set to be enacted before the new business year starts on April 1.It is the ninth consecutive year that the government has compiled a record initial budget and the third straight year that the amount has topped 100 trillio…READ FULL ARTICLE