TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that the total value of his government's first and second fiscal 2020 supplementary budgets will top 200 trillion yen.

"With the unprecedented and the world's biggest programs, we'll protect the Japanese economy from a once-in-a-century crisis," Abe said at a press conference, referring to the coronavirus pandemic.

The cabinet is scheduled to adopt a second supplementary budget plan on Wednesday, Abe said after fully lifting the country's coronavirus state of emergency.

The first supplementary budget, designed to partly finance 117 trillion yen's worth of coronavirus relief measures, was enacted in April.

Abe said that powerful measures worth over 130 trillion yen will be taken to aid the finances of companies hit by the pandemic.

The government and the Bank of Japan "will continue to work together to take various steps," the prime minister said. On Friday, the central bank adopted a new fund supply measure to aid small businesses.

The prime minister also revealed plans to launch a new program to provide up to 6 million yen each to small businesses struggling with paying rent.

He also unveiled plans to boost the amount of extraordinary grants to local governments by 2 trillion yen to 3 trillion yen.

Abe said the government plans to spend over 2 trillion yen to strengthen coronavirus testing capacity and offer up to 200,000 yen each to medical personnel and care facility workers.

JIJI Press