The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to submit a budget request of 95.3 billion yen for fiscal 2021 for expenses related to the new coronavirus, including contributions to a framework for jointly purchasing vaccines with multiple countries.

The ministry will earmark a total of 809 billion yen, 97 billion yen more than the initial budget for fiscal 2020. It will request 140 million yen for chartered aircraft to be used in the event that it needs to evacuate Japanese nationals who are overseas.