Japan FY 2025 Extra Budget Set to Be Enacted

Tokyo, Dec. 10 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government’s fiscal 2025 supplementary budget bill is now set to be enacted during the ongoing extraordinary Diet session, which ends on Dec. 17, as two opposition parties are expected to support it. “We’ll vote in favor of the bill,” Democratic Party for the People chief Yuichiro Tamaki told reporters on Wednesday, welcoming the government’s adoption of DPFP proposals, including scrapping the provisional gasoline tax surcharge. Komeito has notified the ruling bloc of its intention to back the bill, in response to the inclusion of a plan to pay an additional child allowance of 20,000 yen per child in the budget bill, as proposed by the party. Although Komeito is currently in talks with the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan to submit a motion to amend the bill, the party still plans to vote in favor of the budget bill even if the motion is rejected. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin no Kai), plan to hold a vote on the budget bill at a plenary meeting of the House of Representatives on Thursday and send it to the House of Councillors. The budget bill calls for general-account spending of 18,303.4 billion yen to finance a recently adopted economic stimulus package, the first under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Over 60 pct of the budget will be funded by selling government bonds, fueling concerns that Japan’s fiscal condition could deteriorate. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]