TOKYO - Japanese parliament enacted on Wednesday a record-high 97.71 trillion yen ($926 billion) budget for fiscal 2018 with soaring social security costs and military spending.Japan's House of Councillors approved the budget plan Wednesday after it was greenlighted by the House of Representatives on Feb. 28.According to the budget, the fiscal year starting from April 2018 will see a record-high 74.41 trillion yen ($701 billion) earmarked for policy spending in the general account of the Japanese government.Among the major outlays, spending on social security will rise to a record high of some 32.97 trillion yen ($311 billion), accounting for a third of the total budget, on the back of the increasingly aging society of Japan.Defense spending, another major outlay, also hit a record-high of 5.19 trillion yen ($49 billion), rising for the sixth straight year since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in 2012.Among the defense spending, some 730 million yen ($6.88 million) are expected to be used to prepare for the introduction of the US-developed land-based "Aegis Ashore" missile defense system.Debt serving expenses, including payment for interests, are to reach 23.30 trillion yen ($219 billion).The spending is expected to be mainly covered by taxes and other revenues collected by the government, with tax revenue predicted to leap to 59.08 trillion yen ($557 billion).The government, meanwhile, expects to reduce its dependence on debt, though very slightly, to 34.5 percent, from the 35.3 percent in the fiscal 2017, with issuance of new bonds expected to fall to 33.69 trillion yen ($317 billion) in fiscal 2018.The government, which uses debt for financing more than other developed economies, however, is still burdened with arrears that continue to stand as the highest in the industrialized world, amounting to more than twice the size of Japan's economy.The current budget plan is the first since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in essence, abandoned the government's target of achieving a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2020 by opting to raise spending on child welfare and education. wristbands canadacustom silicone bracelets canadarubber bracelets canadasilicone bracelets canadasilicone wristbands canadacustom wristbands canadacanadian wristbandswristbands canada
Rescuers search an overturned train in Yilan, Taiwan October 21, 2018. [Photo/Agencies] TAIPEI - At least 18 people died and some 187 injured as of Monday morning, after a passenger train derailed in Taiwan earlier in the afternoon, according to the island's railway authority. Authorities in Taiwan have lowered the death toll in a train derailment to 18. The National Fire Agency had earlier cited the Cabinet spokesman's office as saying 22 people were killed when the Puyuma express train went off the tracks late Sunday afternoon, but later lowered the toll to 18, saying there was a mistake in the calculations. Some 187 others including two female passengers from the mainland were injured in the disaster. One of the two mainland passengers, aged 44 and surnamed Yao, remained in critical condition. The other, aged 55 and surnamed Tan, was slightly injured and has been discharged from hospital. The train was carrying more than 366 passengers from a suburb of Taipei toward Taitung, a city on Taiwan's southeast coast, when it derailed at 4:50 pm. All eight cars of the express train derailed, with three of them overturned. The cause of the derailment is still under investigation. Authorities are investigating the cause of the derailment.
