Japan eyes $265 billion stimulus package

Japan is taking into account an economic stimulus package worth over 30 trillion yen ($265 billion) targeted at alleviating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, a plan that would require issuing new debt, local news agency Kyodo News reported.

Part of the spending will be taken from funds carried over from the previous year’s budget, the news agency reported on Sunday.

A government panel charged with drafting a blueprint for Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s “new capitalism” is expected to give proposals on Monday that would lay the foundation of the planned stimulus package.

Kishida has vowed to create a large-scale stimulus project within the month, an endeavor that the government seeks to be passed by parliament before the year’s end. However, Kishida failed to specify the exact size of the spending and the amount of additional debt.

In the previous week, the Yomiuri newspaper reported spending of roughly 2 trillion yen on cash payments to households with children as part of the stimulus plan.

The government sought to include other measures in the stimulus package aimed at helping consumption, which was severely affected by the pandemic.

Among other things anticipated to be included in the package was the restart of a domestic tourism promotion campaign and steps to achieve a 10-trillion-yen fund for university research, according to the Sankei newspaper’s Friday report.