Japan to Issue 228 Trillion Yen in Deficit Bonds for Kishida's Economic Measures... 'Rapid Increase in National Debt'

▲Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's economic measures have led to a sharp increase in the country's debt.

According to Kyodo News on the 25th, the Japanese government decided to issue an additional 22.058 trillion yen (approximately 228 trillion won) in government bonds as funding necessary to implement the first economic measures prepared since the launch of the Kishida Cabinet. This means issuing deficit-covering government bonds.

The plan for additional government bond issuance will be reflected in the revised budget (supplementary budget) for the 2021 fiscal year (April 2021 to March 2022), which will be decided at the Cabinet meeting on the 26th.

Including the 43.6 trillion yen of new government bonds contained in the 2021 main budget, the total issuance of deficit-covering government bonds this year is expected to exceed 65 trillion yen (approximately 670 trillion won).

Japanese media reported that although this scale is about 60% of last year's record high of 108.6 trillion yen, which was the largest ever due to COVID-19 measures, it surpasses the 52 trillion yen issued during the 2009 global financial crisis, making it the second largest scale.

On the 19th, the Kishida Cabinet decided on economic measures totaling 55.7 trillion yen in fiscal spending to revive the economy depressed by COVID-19, and decided to raise the insufficient funds through government bond issuance.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.