May 14 ,2020 . 9 minutes ago – 20:35 KYODO NEWS

TOKYO – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday the government aims to enact a second extra budget to finance additional steps to ease the impact of the coronavirus pandemic before the current Diet session ends on June 17.

Speaking at a news conference, Abe said he will instruct officials at a meeting later Thursday to draw up a fresh spending plan to provide financial support to small business operators, furloughed workers and struggling students.

The plan came to light when Abe lifted a state of emergency over the pneumonia-causing virus for 39 of Japan’s 47 prefectures.

The Cabinet will approve the supplementary budget around May 27, according to Abe.

“I decided that stronger measures will be needed to move forward step by step along with Japanese citizens, toward a new daily life,” he said.

The nation is undergoing a “once-in-a-century crisis” which Abe said is incomparable with the 2008 global financial crisis.

The envisaged stimulus includes aid for rent payments by cash-strapped business owners, he said, without touching on details.

The upper limit of subsidies for companies to keep employees despite their business suspension will be raised to 15,000 yen ($140) per day from the current 8,330 yen, according to the prime minister.

Among other measures, the government brought up a plan to extend 100,000 yen to around 400,000 university students in Japan who are unable to earn enough from part-time jobs due to the virus epidemic.

The level of aid per student will double in more serious cases, officials said, when briefing members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party about the plan.

The aid for students will involve 50 billion yen out of a 1.5 trillion yen reserve fund earmarked in the first extra budget for fiscal 2020.

Japan last month enacted a 25.69 trillion yen supplementary budget for the year that started in April, focusing on 100,000 yen cash handouts per person and supporting beleaguered small businesses.

Abe initially issued a one-month state of emergency until May 6 for Tokyo, Osaka and five other prefectures. He expanded it to the whole nation in mid-April while pushing back its deadline to May 31.

Economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said during an upper house committee session that the government will continue to ask people to refrain from going across prefectural borders as well as not holding large gatherings, even after the state of emergency is lifted.

CR: KYODO NEWS