国际英语新闻：Japanese parliament approves extra budget

TOKYO, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- A 7.2 trillion yen (80 billion U.S. dollars) extra budget that aims to keep the nation's tentative recovery on track was approved by parliament in Japan on Thursday.

The budget, written by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and its coalition partners the People's New Party (PNP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), was endorsed in the upper house on Thursday following its passage in the lower house on Monday and will last through March 31.

The extra budget includes measures to stimulate spending, as well as help small-and medium-size companies to stay afloat amid tough economic conditions.

Following the passage of the bill, the government will now focus on getting through it's budget for next year.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is scheduled to give a speech arguing for the budget in parliament on Friday, which will be followed by questions.

Opposition parties are expected to use the time to grill the government about scandals involving undeclared funds and involving Hatoyama and DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa.

Funds for the extra budget were found by the DPJ by overturning policies implemented by the former-governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), with the government keeping true to a promise to eliminate what it claimed was wasteful spending.

The extra budget was formulated in early December, when the nation was suffering from a huge rise in the strength of the yen and news of deflation had caused alarm in the halls of parliament. At the time, the DPJ pushed the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to also implement policies to add more liquidity to the markets.