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The story
On September 1, the government approved a cabinet decision to spend ¥616 billion from reserve funds in the FY2026 budget. Of that, ¥613.6 billion will go toward subsidies that hold down the price of gasoline and other fuels, keeping the nationwide average retail price of regular gasoline at around ¥170 per liter. On 5ch, threads featured back-and-forth confirming that the money comes from taxpayers, frustration that major oil wholesalers are posting their highest net profits in a decade amid Middle East tensions, and pointed comparisons to other countries, where it’s more common to let prices rise with the market and instead support struggling households through targeted payments — leaving commenters split on whether the subsidy makes sense.
9/1 (Tue) 10:37
Kyodo News
The government approved a cabinet decision on the 1st to spend ¥616 billion from reserve funds in the FY2026 budget. Of that, ¥613.6 billion will be allocated to subsidies that hold down the price of gasoline and other fuels, preventing the funding source from drying up. The current price target — keeping the nationwide average retail price of regular gasoline at around ¥170 per liter — will be maintained, easing the burden on households and businesses.
Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Original article here
What people said
This is your cue to attack with 'show us the funding source!'
There's nothing to 'show' — it's obviously everyone's tax money.
It literally says the funding source is the reserve fund.
Was the word 'reserve fund' too hard for you to read?
Who knows how much the wholesalers are skimming off the top.
Electricity subsidies are bigger, you know.
Net profits at Japan's three major oil wholesalers hit their highest level in a decade — margins widened amid Middle East conflict
2026/08/07 — ENEOS Holdings, Idemitsu Kosan, and Cosmo Energy, which had reported April–June earnings by the 7th…
It'd make sense if these guys weren't raking in record profits, but here we are.
It's always like this.
One particular industry gets tax-funded favors and sits pretty.
I question the brains of the people in this country who claim prices aren't rising because of it.
Overseas, the common approach is to accept rising gasoline prices as a market signal and handle protection for low-income households through separate social security payments instead.
Japan's method of having the government control prices long-term is generally avoided elsewhere, since it distorts market mechanisms and amounts to a costly, ineffective handout on the state's dime.
Just scrap the gasoline tax already.
Tobacco tax: 'Ha, you soft little rookie.'
Are there still losers out there still holding yen?
I don't hold a currency that's being printed like crazy.
I've stuck with gold, and only gold, all along.
I just went and paid my neighborhood association dues in dollars.
Without it, people wouldn't even grasp that a weak yen is a problem, would they?
That's just that particular gas station being incompetent.
'Checkmate' (tsumu) means being cornered into a hopeless situation with no way to move.
Yeah, we're already stuck in place…
From here it's just sacrificing something to hold on, like an octopus gnawing off its own legs…
It's double taxation between the gasoline tax and consumption tax — wouldn't scrapping the consumption tax be the better move?
If they scrap the tax outright, raising it again later is a hassle — a subsidy can be ended anytime, so it's easier for them.
To hand subsidies to their buddies, the money has to pass through their hands first.
Even with the subsidy, ¥170 (tax included) is still way too expensive…
I'd at least want it down to just under ¥150 (tax included) with the subsidy factored in.
Why has everyone stopped talking about it?
You can still get it via alternate routes.
Prices are up, though.
Naphtha's expensive even in places like the US to begin with, but it's still available.
For now we're out of the crisis phase.
Prices are still stuck high, though.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
The gasoline subsidy program began in 2022 as a response to soaring crude oil prices and has been repeatedly extended since. Reserve funds are used because they allow spending to be mobilized quickly without Diet deliberation, though the lack of transparency around how the money is spent has repeatedly been raised as an issue in the Diet. Because the subsidy works by suppressing wholesale prices, with payments flowing through the major oil wholesalers, price suppression and rising wholesaler profits tend to happen together by design — which is the root of the ‘only the wholesalers are winning’ criticism seen in the thread. Meanwhile, most countries elsewhere let gasoline prices float with the market and support struggling households through targeted measures like cash payments, making Japan’s approach of having the government hold prices down long-term relatively unusual by international standards. That said, a subsidy alone can’t fully absorb swings from exchange rates or crude oil prices, and the reserve funds paying for it are themselves limited — points not addressed in either the original article or the thread discussion.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Government to Spend ¥600 Billion on Gasoline Subsidies, Easing Burden with ¥170-per-Liter Price“
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