Foreigners may get stimulus pay
The government said Saturday that it has decided to make 2 million locally registered foreigners eligible for cash benefits it plans to hand out next year as part of its push to spur private consumption.
Foreigners listed on the foreign resident registry as of Feb. 1, 2009, will be considered eligible to participate in the¥2 trillion program, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.The 2 million will include permanent foreign residents, such as North and South Koreans living in Japan, as well as foreigners of Japanese descent who hold residential permits as migrant workers, the ministry said.
Foreigners studying at Japanese schools and those accepted as trainees at Japanese companies will also qualify.
Foreign tourists, of course, will be excluded, the ministry said.The cash handouts are the pillar of the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2008 approved Saturday by Prime Minister Taro Aso.
The eligibility deadline for the handouts will be Feb. 1 for both Japanese and registered foreigners.
The cash will be distributed to 129 million people, including foreigners.
Everyone will basically get ¥12,000 each, but an extra ¥8,000 will be given to those 18 and below or 65 and older as of Feb. 1.
This means of those who want to claim the additional ¥8,000 will have had to have been born on Feb. 2, 1990, or later, or on Feb. 2, 1944, or earlier, the ministry said.
There are expected to be 22 million of the younger recipients and 28 million of the older recipients.
The cash will be handed out by the local government offices where the residents are registered.
The payouts, however, hinge on the second extra budget and other relevant bills being passed by the Diet. They also assume local assemblies will pass budgetary bills to cover the cost of distributing the payments.
So it is still not clear the government will be able to hand out the cash within fiscal 2008 as promised because deliberations on the bills could drag on.
