No Need for Large JGB Issuance to Fund Extra Budget: PM Takaichi

Tokyo, May 20 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Wednesday that the country would not need to issue a large amount of Japanese government bonds to finance an envisaged supplementary budget for fiscal 2026. Speaking in a debate of party leaders held at the Diet, the country’s parliament, Takaichi, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said that her government will consider compiling a supplementary budget for the year through next March mainly in response to turmoil in the Middle East. Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, called for including subsidies for gasoline costs and electricity and gas bills in the extra budget. He said the overall size of the extra budget should be around 3 trillion yen in consideration of fiscal discipline. “(We will consider a supplementary budget) to prepare for the possibility that we can’t handle situations with reserve funds from the fiscal 2025 supplementary budget and the fiscal 2026 initial budget,” Takaichi said. She declined to comment on the content and size of the envisaged supplementary budget. The prime minister refuted Centrist Reform Alliance leader Junya Ogawa’s argument that she has been slow to order the compilation of the extra budget, saying, “I don’t believe my instruction was late.” “I want to protect people’s livelihoods and corporate activities while curbing the issuance of deficit-financing bonds as much as possible,” the prime minister said. It was the first party leaders’ debate in the ongoing Diet session. Takaichi faced six opposition party leaders, the most ever under the debate format. Other leaders who spoke in the debate included Shunichi Mizuoka of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Sohei Kamiya of Sanseito, Toshiko Takeya of Komeito and Takahiro Anno of Team Mirai. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]