Japanese lawmakers to take up budgets

TOKYO, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Japanese lawmakers say they will deal with budget issues during their regular 150-day session that convened Monday, officials said.

Kyoto reported Monday that members of the Diet are expected to clash over a supplementary budget for fiscal 2008 introduced by the government.

Prime Minister Taro Aso is seeking passage of a 4.79 trillion yen second extra budget and a record-high 88.55 trillion yen budget for fiscal 2009, the news agency reported.

The government and the ruling parties are seeking Diet passage of the fiscal 2009 budget by the end of March, when the current fiscal year ends.

"The world financial and capital markets have fallen into a crisis that could happen only once in 100 years, resulting in a global economic downturn," said Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa. "Japan's economy has been negatively affected by this crisis and is worsening with declines in exports and production, and a slump in consumption."

The Diet session is scheduled to run through June 3.