Ishiba’s remarks on inflation relief measures draw ire as budget deadline looms

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Thursday spent the little time he has left to pass the fiscal 2025 budget before the end of the month apologizing for earlier remarks about rolling out an anti-inflation package, which have drawn criticism from the opposition and within his own coalition.

The remarks came to light when Komeito chief Tetsuo Saito told reporters on Tuesday that the prime minister plans to draft an economic package to counter rising prices, including those of rice, and abolish a provisional gasoline tax to ease pump prices.

“(Ishiba) talked about launching robust measures to combat price hikes,” Saito told reporters after he met with the prime minister. “My understanding is that he wants to swiftly introduce these measures after the next fiscal year’s budget passes.”

The revelation came as negotiations on when to hold a vote on the budget were heating up between the ruling and opposition parties.

Angered by Ishiba’s remarks, opposition parties have said that his plans for budgetary measures should be included in the ongoing budget talks.

In a heated televised standoff on Thursday, Kiyomi Tsujimoto, a veteran lawmaker of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, blasted Ishiba for his “misleading” remarks while taking a jab at his gift voucher blunder.

“Measures for the rising cost of rice? You know, when I heard that you passed out ¥100,000 ($666) gift vouchers, I thought you’d also hand out rice vouchers,” Tsujimoto said during the meeting of the Upper House Budget Committee. “People are cutting down (on expenses) in tough times. So, when you made such confusing remarks, you misled them and the market that there may be a robust stimulus package.”

Nippon Ishin no Kai also criticized Ishiba. “It looks like (the anti-inflation measures) are meant to appease voters ahead of the election,” said lawmaker Daisuke Katayama.

Ishiba attempted to clarify.

“I am sorry for causing concern and trouble during deliberations by the Budget Committee,” the prime minister said, explaining that the measures he'd referred to are already included in the extra budget for fiscal 2024 and the fiscal 2025 budget. “I wasn’t talking about setting aside a new budget to respond to rising costs,” he emphasized.

Saito also apologized later Thursday for causing trouble by speaking about Ishiba’s remarks.

Immediately after the Ishiba-Saito meeting, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi had tried to play down the comments. “Ishiba’s remarks have nothing to do with a new budget. He was showing his determination that he will mobilize various policies included in the (fiscal 2025) budget to fight inflation,” Hayashi told reporters Tuesday.

Even if the budget fails to clear the Upper House by Monday, it will automatically be enacted on April 2, 30 days after it passed the Lower House. But such a scenario is likely to weaken Ishiba’s political standing.

The remarks have irritated the LDP, which Ishiba heads, as they came at a sensitive time when the party is negotiating with the opposition to schedule a date to vote on the budget — which is being revised in the Upper House to postpone a hike in medical copayment caps — by the Monday deadline.

“The fact that something like this comes up now, when we are deliberating on the budget, is the major issue,” said Junichi Ishii, the LDP’s Diet affairs chief in the Upper House, on Wednesday.

“If (the budget) hypothetically is enacted automatically, which has never happened before, voters will think, ‘What is (Ishiba) doing?'” Ishii told reporters on Tuesday.