Tokyo, May 26 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government plans to spend 50 billion yen to improve fiber-optic networks as the coronavirus pandemic boosted demand for high-speed telecommunications, informed sources told Jiji Press on Tuesday.

The development of high-speed telecom infrastructure is key to supporting work-from-home practices that companies have increasingly adopted as part of social-distancing measures.

The government plans to earmark necessary funds for the fiber-optic network development in an upcoming second supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, which started last April.

In its first fiscal 2020 extra budget, the government booked 3 billion yen to improve telecom infrastructure in areas without an online education environment for schools.

Some 700,000 households are believed to be in areas without fiber-optic networks, according to the communications ministry.

The government now aims to reduce the number of such households to 180,000 in fiscal 2021, two years earlier than its initial target.