Japan Govt to Begin Compiling Provisional Budget for First Time Since 2015

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:16 JST, March 25, 2026

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Tuesday that work will begin to compile the government’s provisional budget in case the budget for fiscal 2026 is not passed by the end of March.

A final decision on whether to approve it at the Cabinet meeting is expected to be made by the end of this week. If compiled, it would be the first provisional budget since fiscal 2015, under the second administration of then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has maintained a stance of aiming to pass the fiscal 2026 budget bill by the end of March, but preparations to compile the provisional budget will also be made at the same time.

Speaking at a press conference after a Cabinet meeting, Katayama said, “Since not even a single day of a budget vacuum can be accepted, we intend to proceed with the work to compile a provisional budget in case of unforeseen circumstances.”

The fiscal 2026 budget bill, which passed the House of Representatives on Mar.13, will be automatically enacted if the House of Councillors does not vote on it by April 11, under Constitutional provisions. The provisional budget would serve as a “stopgap budget” to cover necessary expenses from April 1 to 11.

It is customary for provisional budgets to include only minimum necessary expenses such as social security costs, and not to cover those for new policies. But this time it will cover some of the costs of making school lunch fees and high school tuition free, measures to be implemented in April.

“We have included the costs for new policies [in provisional budgets] before to ensure there will be no disruption to the lives of the people,” Katayama said.

Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki had said a provisional budget should be like supplementary budget in that it should include measures to address energy issues in response to the situation in the Middle East. But Katayama said that is “not envisaged under the intent of the law.”