Japan would consider the need for an extra budget in the current fiscal year to support areas devastated by a recent chain of natural disasters, Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Friday, which could complicate efforts to restore tattered public finances.
"We will respond appropriately by examining the full picture of damages from a recent series of disasters and how the budget has been used," Aso told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Aso's comment comes as a powerful quake struck the northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday, the second disaster to hit Japan this week after a summer in which the country has been battered by deadly typhoons, flooding and a record heat wave.
The minister made no mention of the size of the extra spending.
Kyodo news agency reported that a supplementary budget could exceed 1 trillion yen ($9.05 billion) including subsidies for local governments, the cost of reinforcing levees and other infrastructure as well as support for small firms and farmers
The spectre of bigger spending raises worries about Japan's public debt - the industrial world's heaviest at more than double the size of its economy, although the Bank of Japan's massive debt purchases have helped lower borrowing costs.
Already, budget requests from Japan's government offices have hit a record 102.7658 trillion yen for the next fiscal year starting in April, the finance ministry announced on Friday.