To prevent Japan from entering an economic recession due to the coronavirus, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet announced on Wednesday that the Japan’s stimulus package has been increased to ¥117.1 trillion. This will fund ¥100,000 universal cash handouts to every individual in Japan. This comes as an increase from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s original pledge of ¥108.2 trillion.

The universal handout will replace a more restrictive ¥300,000 handout scheme to support households whose income has fallen sharply due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This increase in stimulus package will allow and encourages individuals to be able to afford and seek higher medical care, helping firms and other individuals to be able to pay rent, and to prevent struggling companies from going out of business due to the lack of customers–benefiting them in the long run.

This increase comes after a revision of the supplementary budget, which was boosted to ¥25.69 trillion from the previously planned ¥16.8 trillion, in a substantial government push to cushion the economy from the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.

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