Kyodo News Agency reported on December 7 that the total amount of new treasury bonds issued in Japan’s original and supplementary budget in 2020 is expected to exceed 100 trillion yen (about $1 trillion) for the first time.
In response to the coronavirus epidemic, the Japanese government has formulated three large supplementary budgets, and tax revenue has also shrunk significantly due to the economic downturn. According to the report, the scale of Japanese government bonds is unprecedented, twice that of 2009 (52 trillion yen) at the previous highest level of the Lehman crisis, highlighting the severity of fiscal deterioration again.
The amount of treasury bonds was 32.6 trillion yen in the original 2020 budget prepared at the end of last year before the coronavirus epidemic. Subsequently, as the epidemic spread, an additional 25.7 trillion yen was added to the first supplementary budget, including the special fixed subsidy of 100,000 yen per person and the tourism catering support project “Go To Activity”, and 31.9 trillion yen was added to the second supplementary budget, including the expanded employment adjustment subsidy and rent support subsidy. The total has increased to 90.2 trillion yen.
