Japan's parliament passes tsunami recovery budget - electric air purifier

TOKYO-Japan's parliament on Monday passed a $48 billion tsunami recovery budget that will only start paying for the most expensive disaster ever.
As more budget struggles are coming, the government's response to the tsunami and the problems that remain are becoming increasingly frustrating
The damaged Fukushima nuclear crisis is unfolding.
The plant threatened to overthrow the country's prime minister.
The fiscal year 4 trillion yen budget supplement programme, which began on April, was unanimously approved by the Budget Committee of the upper house of parliament on Monday morning and became law at the parliamentary plenary meeting later that day.
The stronger House approved the plan on Saturday.
The budget will be used to build new homes for more than 100,000 people who still do not have the proper shelter, clean up debris and rubble on a large scale, rebuild fishing grounds, and support disasters --
Crack down on businesses and employers.
"I am anxious to approve the budget plan as soon as possible so that we can repay the project funds immediately," Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said at a meeting of the Budget Committee . ".
He said more spending is expected in the coming months.
Magnitude of March 119.
The earthquake and the ensuing tsunami have destroyed large areas of Japan's northeast coast, and it is believed that the damage is estimated to be $300 billion, the most expensive disaster in history.
More than 26,000 people have died or disappeared.
Although the budget passed smoothly, the government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan is facing increasing pressure and it is expected that competitors will raise more objections in future budget negotiations.
"We support this budget plan simply because there is an urgent need to fund reconstruction projects," said Mikishi Daimon, a member of the Communist Party of China opposition . ".
Opposition leader calls on Naoto Kan
People who were already unpopular before the disaster
Resigned to deal with the aftermath, especially his reaction to the subsequent Fukushima crisis
First nuclear power plant.
A survey released by the main newspaper, Asahi Shimbun (Asahi) on Monday showed that 55% of respondents had "little expectation" of Kan's cabinet to properly handle the disaster response ".
According to the national telephone survey conducted in April 23, only 27% said they were "promising" and 24 am people randomly selected 1,842 families.
Polls of this size usually have a plus sign erroror minus-
3 percentage points.
The budget does not include the government's support for the huge liability of the nuclear power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, made clear on Monday that Tokyo Electric Power had unlimited responsibility because the tsunami and earthquake were "not impossible" under the nuclear accident compensation act.
Tokyo Electric Power company spokesman Takashi Kurita said the operator is preparing to install an air purifier in the reactor building of Unit 1 to reduce the level of radioactivity by 95% in the next few days.
This step will allow workers to enter the area for the first time, so that they can restore the primary goal of restoring the cooling system destroyed by the tsunami.
During an unrelated development, unusually high levels of radiation were detected at the Fukui nuclear power plant at sea in Japan, away from the northeast coast destroyed by the tsunami.
Marutani Mitsuru of the Japanese atomic energy company said the anomaly was contained in the cooling system of the plant, causing no external leakage and the plant was still in operation
He said the factory will be closed step by step in order to inspect.