Japan's parliament passes tsunami recovery budget

Japan's parliament today passed an emergency $48 billion budget for massive reconstruction in the country's northeast which was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami even as the operator at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said it will build a wall to defend it against future tsunamis.

The 4 trillion yen ($48 billion) bill, unveiled last month, passed the lower house yesterday and was approved unanimously by the upper house budget committee early today. It will help fund new housing for tens of thousands of people who lost their homes.

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said further spending would follow in the months ahead.

The government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to draw up second and third supplementary budgets later this year, with some lawmakers saying total spending on relief measures after the disaster could top 10 trillion yen, Kyodo News Agency reported.

The opposition backed the emergency package, but Kan's government is expected to face tougher battles to secure future reconstruction funds using a mixture of borrowing and tax hikes. Growing calls for Kan to resign, from within and outside his party, will make it hard for him to garner enough support to pass a second extra budget.

Polls over the weekend showed mounting public concern over Kan's leadership during the crisis. Japan already has a debt burden double the size of the economy.

Meanwhile, Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) today tried to bring the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima under control.

Workers at the plant pour water into reactors to cool fuel rods, but have then faced the challenge of containing contaminated waste water leaking from the reactor buildings.

Today, workers were preparing to install an air purifier in the No 1 reactor building to reduce radioactivity, BBC quoted a spokesman as saying.

TEPCO plans to build a wall about two metres (six feet) high and 500 metres long, made of rocks contained by wire mesh, in order to guard the plant against future quakes and tsunamis, said reports citing TEPCO officials.

The wall would be built at a height of about 10 metres above sea level and be designed to resist a wave generated by an 8-magnitude quake -- smaller than the monster wave triggered by the 9-magnitude quake in March.

Officials said the operator also plans to triple from about 1,000 to 3,000 the number of staff nuclear workers and subcontractors handling the crisis to reduce each individual's radiation exposure.

Emergency crew have been battling for eight weeks to stabilise the six-reactor plant which was damaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami, and which has since been hit by explosions, leaking radiation. TEPCO has said it could take up to nine months to bring the plant fully under control.

Meanwhile, The National Police Agency said that 14,704 people had been confirmed dead in the earthquake-tsunami double tragedy, including those who were killed in aftershocks on April 7 and 11, while 10,969 are still listed as missing.