Senior members of Japan's ruling parties agreed Tuesday to consider reinstating subsidies to reduce summer electricity and gas bills, as households continue to grapple with the pain of surging prices.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama said after holding talks with his Komeito party counterpart Makoto Nishida that using reserve funds for the current fiscal year could be an option to fund the subsidies.
Moriyama said they also must consult opposition parties, given that the ruling coalition does not hold a majority in the House of Representatives.
The government introduced subsidies for utility bills between August and October last year as the country experienced scorching heat that drove up household electricity usage.
LDP Diet affairs chief Tetsushi Sakamoto told reporters that his party will push for an earlier implementation of the subsidy program, possibly in June or earlier. Komeito Diet affairs chief Hidemichi Sato also voiced support for quick action.
To counter rising energy prices following Russia's war in Ukraine and yen weakness, the Japanese government initially introduced the utility bill subsidies between January 2023 and May 2024.
The program has since continued off and on, though subsidies have been scaled back. The government allocated more than 4 trillion yen in total.
© KYODO
7 Comments
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sakurasuki
JGovt solution for all problem, subsidies, subsidies and subsidies.
koiwaicoffee
Why not control the prices instead? There's a lot of corporative greediness in all of these "surging prices".
David Brent
Or you could just, you know, have companies raise wages to a decent level, and stop with this 250,000 per month utter nonsense.
chatanista
Cut in income tax / raising of tax free threshold would be better for consumers ( but not govt - so fat chance ).
HopeSpringsEternal
Desperate times indeed, but Govt. energy subsidies easier as global energy markets have sold off in general since Jan, so the subsidies only mean the Govt. will make less money = share the current energy '$windfall'
BertieWooster
Cut taxes so that people actually have the money they earn. Trim the fat in the government and government workers. Much of what government agencies can be done by computer anyway. Cut politicians salaries and cut the kickbacks, "¥1,000,000 omochidai" etc.
BigNaraDeer
Why not turn on all the nuclear power plants that were designed to prevent this in the first place?