Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday convened the first meeting of the Economic Revitalization Headquarters, endorsing the outline of the government's emergency stimulus package totaling some ¥20 trillion in a bid to steer Japan out of deflation and prop up the economy with massive public works spending.
The package includes public-private initiatives and spending by local governments. The central government will compile a ¥13.1 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2012, which ends in March, to finance the package, with ¥10.3 trillion of that to be specifically used for fresh stimulus spending.
The Economic Revitalization Headquarters, headed by Abe and one of the main bodies to lead his economic agenda, endorsed pillars of the stimulus plan, including accelerated reconstruction of the Tohoku region, bolstered disaster prevention measures and fiscal policies to combat the nation's prolonged deflation and high yen.