TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday that the government will consider drafting a stopgap spending measure in case the fiscal 2026 regular budget bill fails to pass parliament before the start of the year on April 1.
Takaichi made the remarks at an executive meeting of her ruling Liberal Democratic Party, according to a senior LDP official. The prime minister has still not given up on seeking to pass the budget bill by the end of this month, although it appears unlikely as last month's snap general election has made the deliberation schedule tight.
The regular draft budget worth 122.31 trillion yen ($773 billion) was pushed through the House of Representatives on March 13 with the backing of the ruling parties' overwhelming majority, but their coalition remains a minority in the House of Councillors.
A provisional budget, if compiled, will be the first since 2015. Such a budget usually covers minimum necessary expenses for a certain period of time from the start of a new fiscal year.
At the party executive meeting, Takaichi was quoted as saying, "We want to consider compiling a provisional budget draft to prepare for unforeseen circumstances."
One possible schedule is to endorse the stopgap budget draft at a Cabinet meeting on Friday.
The regular budget will be enacted automatically if the upper house fails to vote on it by April 11, as the lower house vote takes precedence under the Constitution.
The government will therefore need to compile a stopgap measure for 11 days to avoid disruption in people's lives, including spending for expanded free high school tuition starting in April, social security spending and tax allocation to local governments.
In the past, provisional budgets have included spending on new measures in addition to essential costs, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference, noting that "appropriate considerations" will be made on the issue.
However, Kihara indicated his opposition to earmarking expenses to address soaring energy prices following the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began in late February, which were not incorporated in the regular budget bill.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to use about 800 billion yen in reserves from the current fiscal year's budget for a fund to finance subsidies to curb the rise in gasoline prices.
The government resumed gasoline subsidies to petroleum suppliers last Thursday, but it fears the fund could dry up as the Middle East situation continues to deteriorate and keep crude oil prices elevated, dealing a blow to the resource-poor nation.
Takaichi's statement recognizing the need to work on a stopgap budget came as the upper house opposition parties including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan have demanded sufficient time for budget debate and a provisional measure to be drafted, threatening to reject upcoming deliberations if the government and ruling parties do not agree.
The CDPJ told the LDP on Monday that its members will participate in upper house deliberations of all the committees save the education panel, owing to the presence of Education Minister Yohei Matsumoto, who is reported to have had an extramarital affair.
