Senior Cabinet members broke ranks Friday to criticize Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to limit government bond issues to 30 trillion yen for this fiscal year.
"The strength of the economy is eroding, so it would jeopardize the planned structural reforms if we leave the economy alone without taking countermeasures," Takeo Hiranuma, minister of economy, trade and industry, told a news conference.
"Although things are proceeding on the presumption that the size of a supplementary budget will be limited to 1 trillion yen plus a few hundred billion yen, I question the effectiveness of spending on such a scale.