Japan's Takaichi Calls for Early Passage of Extra Budget

Tokyo, June 3 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Wednesday called for an early passage of her government's 3.1-trillion-yen supplementary budget aimed at addressing the fallout from the war in Iran.

The government will "take all possible measures to minimize risks," Takaichi said at a meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, after it submitted the extra budget for fiscal 2026 earlier on Wednesday.

The budget earmarks 3,113.5 billion yen in general-account spending, which will be used mainly to launch a new pool of reserve funds totaling 2.5 trillion yen designed to finance measures aimed at cushioning the impact of rising energy prices.

The sum also includes 100 billion yen in grants to local governments and 513.5 billion yen to increase existing general reserves for electricity and city gas bill relief.

The spending will be fully covered by deficit-covering bonds. Takaichi said that the government expects to be able to cut its fiscal 2025 deficit-covering bond issuance from the earlier planned amount, so there will be "no impact on the government bond market."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]