TOKYO: 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.

JIJI Press