Prime Minister Naoto Kan has indicated the government won't issue any new bonds to finance an extra budget, which could involve emergency spending for an additional stimulus package.
But his economic and fiscal policy minister, Banri Kaieda, suggested Friday he was against the government placing too much emphasis on fiscal discipline while ignoring the need to lift the economy out of deflation.
The government "will study how much we can respond without issuing bonds as well as study whether we can create a budget with the scale that opposition parties are calling for," Kan told reporters Thursday in New York, where he was attending U.N. gatherings.