Japan Govt Mulling Stimulus Package Worth over ¥17 Tril., Aiming to Tackle Rising Prices Including Winter Energy Costs

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:00 JST, November 17, 2025

The government is considering a package of economic measures worth more than ¥17 trillion with funding included for tackling rising prices, according to sources.

Arrangements are being made to subsidize winter electricity and gas bills with each household receiving a total of about ¥6,000 over the three months from January next year, the sources said. The total scale of the stimulus package is expected to exceed ¥17 trillion, combining expenditures from the general and special accounts of a supplementary budget for fiscal 2025 and major tax cuts.

Under “responsible, proactive fiscal policies” that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has touted, government spending for the stimulus is expected to significantly exceed the previous fiscal year’s ¥14.8 trillion. The figure could increase further.

Expenditures from the general account are expected to be about ¥14 trillion, up from ¥13.9 trillion last fiscal year. The government is aiming to enact a supplementary budget bill, which will fund the economic measures, during the current extraordinary Diet session. The government intends to obtain Cabinet approval of the economic measures as early as Friday, based on coordination with the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party.

To ease the impact of rising prices, the government envisages providing ordinary households with monthly subsidies of about ¥1,000 to ¥2,500 for electricity and gas used from January to March next year. Subsidies are likely to be higher for the colder months of January and February, with total support over the three months expected to be about ¥6,000. This doubles the monthly subsidy of about ¥1,000, which had been provided from July to September.

The government also plans to expand a priority support local grant program, under which local governments receive financial aid in recommended areas such as food purchase assistance, with an eye to reduce burdens by about ¥10,000 per household. Such money is envisaged to be used for measures including issuing rice coupons.

The JIP, the LDP’s ruling coalition partner, has called for clear-cut measures to alleviate the burden on households, with the latter giving up on cash handouts proposed by the administration of former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

The support measures are likely to be worth a total of ¥50,000 per household, together with the abolition of the provisional tax surcharges for gasoline and diesel oil, on which the ruling and opposition parties have agreed, as well as income tax cuts to be implemented in this fiscal year’s tax reform.

Regarding investments in strategic sectors, the government plans to draw up a roadmap for revitalizing the shipbuilding industry and implement a total of ¥1 trillion in investments from the public and private sectors. To mass-produce advanced semiconductors with anticipated global demand, the government intends to focus on support for capital investment and develop relevant infrastructure such as power supply in places where data centers will be located.

As for healthcare and nursing care support, the government intends to create a new financing system in order to improve the management of private hospitals being hit hard by rising prices.