Japan to Prepare Stopgap Budget as Takaichi Gets Reality Check

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is encountering the limits of her historic mandate as she struggles to get an annual budget through parliament in time for the start of the new fiscal year in April despite setting that goal.

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Tuesday that the government would draw up an 11-day stopgap budget in case the annual budget remains stuck in parliament, an indication that such an outcome is now seen as highly likely. This would be the first provisional budget since 2015.