Cash handout begins in Aomori and Hokkaido villages+

AOMORI, Japan, March 5 Kyodo -
Two villages -- one in Aomori Prefecture and the other in Hokkaido -- on
Thursday became the first municipalities to hand out cash to their residents
under Prime Minister Taro Aso's controversial cash benefit plan that parliament
passed the day before.

In Nishimeya in Aomori, a village located at the foot of the Shirakami
Mountains designated as a World Natural Heritage site, 1,595 people in 537
households started receiving cash -- 12,000 yen each and an extra 8,000 yen for
children up to 18 years old and seniors 65 or older -- at the village office.
Some of the residents began forming a line in front of the office's entrance
around 9:30 a.m. and said they were simply pleased with the plan, which the
government hopes will spur consumer spending despite widespread criticism that
it will have little impact on the ailing economy.
''I want to get more expensive sashimi (raw fish) than usual,'' 78-year-old
farmer Yoshie Yamashita said with a smile.
According to village officials, the money paid Thursday amounted to roughly 7
million yen out of the total of 25.46 million yen being planned for all
residents.
The municipal government of Nishiokoppe in Hokkaido, a village near the Sea of
Okhotsk, paid the money by bank remittance to 247 out of 367 households that
had filed advance applications.
Fumie Makino, a 69-year-old housewife, showed up at a local bank branch and
confirmed that a total of 40,000 yen, including her husband's portion, had been
sent to her account. ''I may be the first among all residents in Hokkaido,''
she said, beaming.
In Tokyo, Aso, whose government is struggling with low approval rates, appeared
satisfied that the cash payment scheme has finally become a reality four months
after being announced as part of an economic stimulus plan.
''It is very pleasing that the government has finally been able to distribute
the payments,'' Aso told reporters. ''I hope people will use them and help
boost consumption.''
But municipalities in urban areas which have large populations and need complex
procedures for such payments will not be able to start the distribution until
May or beyond, way after the April 1 start of the next fiscal year.
This means that Aso effectively failed to fulfill his pledge to have the
payments distributed by the end of the current fiscal year.
On Wednesday, parliament enacted a bill to implement the 2 trillion yen cash
handout program included in the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2008.
==Kyodo