Japan is considering cutting gasoline subsidies as early as December, two
ruling-party officials said, citing rapidly rising program costs. The emergency
measure, introduced in March to blunt fuel-price inflation and keep average
Regular gasoline around 170 yen per liter (≈$1.09), now costs tens of billions
of dollars a month and is quickly depleting a 3.1 trillion yen supplementary
budget approved in June. Under a plan being discussed, weekly payments to fuel
distributors would be phased down, lifting the national average retail price to
about 175 yen/l in December and roughly 180 yen/l in January.
