TOKYO: The Japanese government plans to soon devise fresh measures to curb the impacts of high crude oil prices amid the Ukrainian crisis, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Koichi Hagiuda said in a television program on Sunday.

“We have to swiftly decide what to do after” the expiration at the end of April of the government’s program to provide subsidies to oil wholesalers with the aim of keeping gasoline and other fuel prices in check, Hagiuda said.

Hagiuda said measures such as subsidizing oil wholesalers further or unfreezing the so-called trigger provision to implement a temporary gasoline tax cut have limited effectiveness.

He then said, “We want to implement further assistance measures for industries and households hit especially hard on the economic front, in hope of overcoming the situation with multilayered responses.”

On the government’s issuance in late March of power shortage warnings for some areas of the country, which caused confusion as it came on very short notice, Hagiuda indicated his intention to review related procedures, saying, “We have to think about releasing such information as a forecast a little more quickly.”

JIJI Press