Calls were made Sunday for an extra budget totaling at least 10 trillion yen for the current fiscal year to shore up the anemic economy.
"The gap of supply and demand is reaching 20 trillion yen. We need to compile a budget to fill the gap. At least 10 trillion yen would be necessary for that," said Mitsuo Horiuchi, head of the decision-making General Council of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on a Fuji TV talk show.
Horiuchi told reporters later Sunday that 1 trillion yen is needed to finance measures to increase Japan's birthrate and deal with problems associated with a rapidly graying society.
He also referred to needing 3 trillion yen to build a social safety net to help small firms and jobless people, and another 3 trillion yen for urban redevelopment and other public-works projects.
On the talk show, Horiuchi criticized the government for lacking a sense of crisis about the Japanese economy. "The economy has worsened significantly, but the government does not have that perception."
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to issue formal orders next Friday to begin the compilation of a supplementary budget, likely to total 5 trillion yen, for fiscal 2002.