Japan forced to amend budget

Tokyo: Japan has said it will have to amend its upcoming budget to fund compensation for people whose benefits were incorrectly paid for years because of a scandal involving incorrect labour data.

The labour ministry admitted this week that it has for years failed to collect complete data for its monthly employment report, which is closely watched as an indicator of wages and work hours.

The data helps determine various government benefits, including employment insurance.

Officials are supposed to gather data from all firms with 500 or more employees but in Tokyo, only about one third of 1,400 such firms were surveyed.

Local media said the scandal could date back more than a decade and a total of 53 billion yen ($490 millions dollars) would be repaid to 20 million workers.

"I have received a report from the labour and welfare ministry that they need to provide employment insurance and other payments retroactively," top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

"We will make adjustments to make a necessary budget allocation in the fiscal 2019 budget" for the year starting in April, he said.