TOKYO: The Japanese government adopted on Tuesday an emergency economic stimulus package worth a record 108.2 trillion yen to fight the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak and minimize its impact on the domestic economy.

"The Japanese economy, not only the world economy, faces the biggest crisis since the end of World War II," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a press conference.

"We're determined to end this biggest postwar crisis by utilizing all possible policy measures," he said. "We'll protect employment and citizens' lives with a strong sense of crisis."

The package, approved at an extraordinary cabinet meeting, features cash benefits totaling more than 6 trillion yen to households, companies and self-employed people experiencing severe income falls due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Specifically, 300,000 yen will be paid to eligible households, up to 2 million yen to small and midsize businesses and up to one million yen to freelancers and other self-employed people.

The government aims to start payments of the cash benefits in May.

Also planned for distressed households and companies is a tax and social insurance premium payment moratorium totaling 26 trillion yen.

The stimulus package, including 39.5 trillion yen in fiscal spending, will also increase child allowances by 10,000 yen per person.

Other measures include assistance to boost production of Avigan, an influenza drug considered effective in treating COVID-19, and the issuance of vouchers to shore up tourism demand after the virus is put under control.

The 108.2-trillion-yen package far surpassed the 56.8-trillion-yen economic measures released in April 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis triggered by the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.

The size expanded partly because the new package includes measures in an economic stimulus program adopted late last year that have not been implemented yet and additional emergency measures drawn up in February and March that utilize budgeted reserve funds.

At the cabinet meeting, the government also adopted a draft supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, earmarking 16,705.8 billion yen as general-account expenditures to finance the latest stimulus package.

Including measures other than those in the package, the extra budget's general-account spending totals 16,805.7 billion yen.

Additional Japanese government bonds will be issued to finance the budget, including deficit-covering bonds worth 14,476.7 billion yen.

The government will use 4,020.6 billion yen to provide cash benefits to households hit by sharp income declines, 2,317.6 billion yen to small and midsize companies and self-employed people facing steep income drops and 165.4 billion yen for add-on child allowances.

The government will also book 1.5 trillion yen as special reserve funds that can be used exclusively for measures against the new coronavirus in fiscal 2020, which ends in March next year.

JIJI Press