Japan PM: Government to raise $253 billion stimulus package

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Tuesday the government will raise a stimulus package worth about 39 trillion yen ($253 billion), to be funded through a supplementary budget it hopes to pass through parliament.

The government estimated in July that Japan would run a primary budget surplus of 0.8 trillion yen in fiscal 2025, meaning tax revenues would narrowly exceed expenditures.

Japan has in the past used supplementary budgets, typically worth a few trillion yen, to deal with emergency spending on things like disaster relief. That changed in 2020, when the figure jumped to 73 trillion yen to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.