China News Service, April 10, according to a report by the Japanese Kyodo News Agency on the 9th, the Japanese government plans to start issuing 2 cotton masks to each household next week. This plan is expected to cost 46.6 billion yen (about RMB 3.02 billion) ).

On April 1, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that cotton masks will be delivered to about 50 million households nationwide, with a ratio of two for each household. According to reports, cotton masks will be given priority in cities and other areas with more infected people, and plans to start delivery next week.

People wearing masks at a station in Tokyo. China News Service reporter Lu Shaowei

Regarding the expenditure for masks, in addition to the 23.3 billion yen included in the announced 2020 supplementary budget, the Japanese government will also use the preliminary budget of 23.3 billion yen for the 2020 original budget to make the total funds for the implementation of this plan Reached 46.6 billion yen. The Japanese government said that the number of masks is expected to be 130 million, which will be purchased at a price of 260 yen each, and the total purchase will reach 33.8 billion yen. The remaining amount is the cost of delivery and packaging.

At the press conference on the 9th, the Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Japanese Cabinet Office Sugawara estimated that if the 100 million masks issued can be used on average 20 times by washing, then "the consumption of 2 billion disposable masks can be reduced", and he said that The purpose of this move is to allow more people to get masks and to ensure that medical institutions have a sufficient number of masks, saying "there is no alternative."

However, because the project cost originally considered was about 20 billion yen, the total amount announced by the Japanese government increased significantly from the previous one. The huge financial burden caused the Japanese opposition party to be in an uproar. The opposition party pointed out that assistance should be given to families and enterprises with reduced income as the highest priority.