A poster for the Japanese government's Go To Travel subsidy program is seen in Tokyo on Dec. 19, 2020. (Mainichi)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan has yet to use about 20 trillion yen ($180 billion) out of some 73 trillion yen under its three fiscal 2020 extra budgets to fund stimulus packages in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a Kyodo News tally showed Tuesday.

       The finding based on data released by the Cabinet Office in May reflects the government's slow response in efforts to mitigate the economic fallout from the pandemic as well as stalled projects such as a domestic tourism promotion campaign due to further spread of the virus.

       The amount of leftover funds was revealed as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's Liberal Democratic Party is considering drawing up another large-scale supplementary budget to finance fresh economic stimulus, apparently looking to win public support ahead of a general election that must be held by November.

       The government earmarked over 3.6 trillion yen as financial aid for restaurants and bars that comply with local authorities' requests to shut down or cut operating hours to curb the virus spread, but just about 970 billion yen of the budget had been provided as of late April, according to the tally.

       Delays in clerical work are believed to lie behind the amount yet to be used.

       Of about 2.37 trillion yen set aside for the state-subsidized "Go To Travel" campaign, launched in July last year to boost the virus-hit domestic tourism sector, only 940 billion yen has been delivered to tourists and service operators due to its nationwide suspension since late December in response to a spike in virus cases.

       Government officials were aware that the extra budgets formed in the last fiscal year would not be used up and would be carried over to this fiscal year, a Finance Ministry official said.

       Many policy measures under the first and second extra budgets have being implemented.

       The fully executed budgets include those for 100,000 yen cash handouts to all of Japan's 126 million residents to ease the pandemic's economic impact and the distribution of washable cloth face masks known as "Abenomask," meaning "Abe's mask," named after then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Both measures were implemented last year.

       The money set aside under the fiscal 2020 supplementary budgets include 11.5 trillion yen of reserve funds to deal with the pandemic, which could be used without a breakdown of the outlay and further Diet approval. The government has earmarked over 9 trillion yen of such funds.

       The Cabinet Office has examined budget implementation status, covering projects for which more than 10 billion yen in state funds has been allocated, with financial support for small and midsize firms excluded from the review.

       Some of the leftover funds will be spent in fiscal 2021, which started in April, or later.

       Font Size S M L Print Timeline 0