Overview
- The government is preparing to restart electricity and gas subsidies for January–March with total relief of about ¥6,000 per household, according to officials.
- January and February payments are planned to exceed roughly ¥2,000 each for an average household, doubling the scale of this summer’s ~¥1,000‑per‑month aid.
- The measures are being folded into an economic package reported to top ¥17 trillion that centers on price relief and includes large tax elements such as suspending the gasoline tax’s provisional rate.
- Final subsidy amounts and related details are still under adjustment, with the stated aim of reducing household burdens from energy costs.
- Separately, MOFA’s Asia‑Oceania bureau chief Masaaki Kanai is in China Nov. 17–18 to explain Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Taiwan‑contingency remarks after Beijing’s advisories, and Tomari village’s mayor on Nov. 17 consented to restart Hokkaido Electric’s Tomari No. 3 reactor, the first local approval under the current process.