{"id":360041,"date":"2026-01-09T02:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/360041\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T02:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:08:16","slug":"expansionary-policy-reflected-in-japans-record-high-budget-for-fiscal-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/360041\/","title":{"rendered":"Expansionary Policy Reflected in Japan\u2019s Record High Budget for Fiscal 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-series\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nippon.com\/en\/series\/japan-data\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan Data<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"c-cate c-cate0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nippon.com\/en\/articlelist.html?f=ncf-category&amp;s=Economy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Economy<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"c-cate c-cate2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nippon.com\/en\/articlelist.html?f=ncf-category&amp;s=Politics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Politics<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"c-cate c-cate2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nippon.com\/en\/articlelist.html?f=ncf-category&amp;s=Lifestyle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lifestyle<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tJan 9, 2026<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tAn end to zero interest rates means that the amount of money spent on servicing Japan\u2019s national debt rose by more than 10% in the fiscal 2026 budget.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>  \t\t\t\t Expansionary Budget Exceeds \u00a5120 Trillion<\/p>\n<p>On December 26, 2025, the Japanese government approved a \u00a5122.3 trillion budget for fiscal 2026, which is a 6.2% year-on-year increase. The budget is the first to exceed \u00a5120 trillion and marks a record high for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n<p>Spending on social security, which accounts for one-third of all expenditures, rose 2.0% to a record \u00a539.1 trillion, reflecting the graying of the population and measures to address the declining birthrate. In addition, with the end of the policy of zero interest rates, servicing the national debt by redeeming or paying interest on previously issued government bonds increased by 10.8% to \u00a531.3 trillion. This is the first time for the figure to surpass \u00a530 trillion and the sixth consecutive record high. Social security and debt servicing together account for nearly 60% of all government spending.<\/p>\n<p>Defense spending totals \u00a59.0 trillion in fiscal 2026, reaching the target of 2% of GDP two years ahead of schedule, while regional allocation tax grants distributed to local governments rise to \u00a520.9 trillion. Both of these figures are new record highs.<\/p>\n<p>Revenue is forecast to set a new record high for the seventh consecutive year, at \u00a583.7 trillion, backed by strong corporate performance. New government bond issuance to cover the revenue shortfall will increase 3.3%, to \u00a529.6 trillion. Japan\u2019s bond dependency ratio, which indicates the ratio of debt to revenue, now stands at 24.2%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"photo_box_c_v2\" style=\"width: 500px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2934218.png\" class=\"fancybox\" rel=\"gallery\" data-libid=\"2934218\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2934218.png\" data-libid=\"2934218\" alt=\"Account Expenditure (FY 2026)\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo_box_c_v2\" style=\"width: 500px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2934219.png\" class=\"fancybox\" rel=\"gallery\" data-libid=\"2934219\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2934219.png\" data-libid=\"2934219\" alt=\"Government Revenues, Expenditures, and Debt\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The outstanding amount of issued government bonds increases each year and is predicted to reach \u00a51.15 quadrillion by the end of fiscal 2026. This includes \u00a513 trillion in interest payments. Interest has become a factor again after the Bank of Japan switched from its policy of negative interest rates, and if long-term rates rise they will put further pressure on public finances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"photo_box_c_v2\" style=\"width: 500px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2934220.png\" class=\"fancybox\" rel=\"gallery\" data-libid=\"2934220\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2934220.png\" data-libid=\"2934220\" alt=\"Issuance of Japanese Government Bonds,  Interest Rates, and Interest Payments\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Data Sources<\/p>\n<p>(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae (left) listens to questions alongside Finance Minister Katayama Satsuki at a House of Councillors Budget Committee session. Photo taken on November 12, 2025. \u00a9\u00a0Jiji.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-keywords\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <a href=\"\">budget<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t <a href=\"\">fiscal policy<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t <a href=\"\">government bond<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan Data Economy Politics Lifestyle Jan 9, 2026 An end to zero interest rates means that the amount&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[458,84,1294,86660,28121,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-360041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-fiscal-policy","12":"tag-government-bond","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}