TOKYO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Japan's lower house of parliament on Friday approved an extra budget of 622.5 billion yen (5.4 billion U.S. dollars) with the amount earmarked for disaster relief costs as well as those connected to defense.
The latest budget is for the current fiscal year through March and is the third extra budget that has been approved by the government for this period.
The budget allocations include 195.5 billion yen for restoration work in the areas that were hit by strong typhoons and earthquakes in 2016 and an additional 170.6 billion yen has been made available to be spent by the government on defense-related issues.
The government said it would issue new bonds to the tune of 1.85 trillion yen to help cover the financing of the extra budget as the government failed to earn as much from taxes as it initially expected in 2016.
