The Lower House passed a record budget Tuesday, marking a turning point in Diet deliberations that will prompt both the ruling and opposition camps to switch their attention to the next big goal: the Upper House election this summer.
The fiscal 2016 budget totaling ¥96.7 trillion cleared the Lower House, controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition, by a majority vote Tuesday evening.
The passage through the lower chamber effectively ensures the enactment of the budget by the end of March, when fiscal 2015 will draw to an end, allowing the ruling coalition to meet the key deadline for preventing any confusion in government spending.
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