Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed her determination to avoid issuing a large amount of deficit-covering government bonds for a supplementary budget to address economic fallout from the Middle East conflict. “We cannot allow any worst-case scenarios to jeopardize people’s livelihoods or economic activities,” Takaichi said during a series of Diet debates with party leaders on May 20. She added that it has not yet reached the stage to discuss the overall scale or concrete details of a planned extra budget for fiscal 2026. [...]