The Japanese government approved an 8.56 trillion yen stopgap budget on March 27 to fund operations for the first 11 days of fiscal 2026 starting April 1, due to stalled upper house deliberations on the main 122.31 trillion yen budget passed by the lower house earlier this month. This is the first such provisional measure in 11 years, backed by ruling and main opposition parties, and expected to pass parliament on March 30.
Following the House of Representatives' approval of the record 122.31 trillion yen main budget on March 14 despite opposition protests over abbreviated debate, progress has halted in the 248-member House of Councillors, where Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition lacks a majority.
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the largest upper house opposition group, threatened to block proceedings without a stopgap. A senior official flagged the need on March 25, ahead of the March 31 fiscal year-end.
Ruling parties hold a supermajority of about 350 seats in the 465-member lower house after Takaichi's February 8 election call, but cannot expedite the upper house similarly.
Key allocations in the stopgap: 5.1 trillion yen in local government subsidies, 2.8 trillion yen for social security (pensions, welfare), 47.7 billion yen for private high school tuition aid, and 14.9 billion yen for elementary school lunches.
The budget will automatically enact if the upper house does not act by April 11 (30 days after lower house passage); the stopgap expires upon main budget approval.
Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano called it a sign that 'for the first time since Takaichi took office, she will have to compromise.' Doshisha University professor Toru Yoshida highlighted limits to her top-down style due to poor party communication.
The last stopgap was for fiscal 2015, delayed by Shinzo Abe's 2014 election.
