TOKYO -- Despite a series of spending packages Japan has enacted to ease the economic pain from the coronavirus pandemic, relief has been slow to reach struggling businesses and individuals as onerous applications and technical glitches delay the process.
The Diet on Friday approved the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, touting programs worth a record 117 trillion yen ($1.09 trillion). But the passage was met with little fanfare from the public as much of relief from the first spending package approved at the end of April has yet to reach intended recipients.
