Prime Minister Naoto Kan's plan to plug the budget gap with record debt sales this year will get some help from banks needing a place to park deposits that are outstripping loans by the widest margin on record.
Customer deposits at banks exceeded outstanding lending by ¥151 trillion at the end of November, up 37 percent from two years ago and equivalent to a third of the economy, according to Bank of Japan data.
The Finance Ministry plans to sell ¥144.9 trillion in government bonds in the year starting April 1, ¥600 billion more than the initial plan for fiscal 2010.