Although the government said that the Japanese economy recovered slightly faster than previously thought during the third quarter of 2020, and this information increased optimism on the markets, Prime Minister informed on Tuesday about a new generous stimulus to accelerate green and digital growth.

The third-largest world economy does not take any chances and is not following the frugal style economic policies in Australia. Japan will compile a fresh US $708 billion economic stimulus package to speed up the country’s recovery from its deep pandemic slump, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said during press conference in Tokyo.

The new package will invest $40 billion in direct fiscal spending and projects targeted at boosting adoption of digital technologies and reducing carbon emission, Prime Minister announced.

Japan's pandemic economic stimulus is aimed
to boost digital and green growth

Japan decided to boost economy with this significant stimulus despite holding the industrial world's heaviest public debt burden, which is double the size of its gross domestic product.

We have compiled the new measures to maintain employment, sustain business and restore the economy and open a way to achieve a new growth in green and digital areas, so as to protect people's lives and livelihoods, Mr. Suga said at the conference.

The fund is to bolster environmental investment as we aim to become a global leader in this area, he emphasised.

Japanese industry have been consistent in their policy of shutting down the traditional energy sources powered-infrastructure and polluting metal industry sending chills to the main exporters of coal and iron-ore as Australia.



Japanese industry shifts to the green technologies shutting down on polluters

One of the leading Japanese industry groups Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., last week announced plans to shift its core growth strategy from its much-hyped SpaceJet project to decarbonization.

The company said it will invest a total of US $1.9 billion over three years, starting from fiscal 2021, to expand its decarbonization-related businesses and develop the necessary technology.

Its total investment is 1.5 times larger than what it shelled out in the previous three-year period, starting from fiscal 2018.

Another industrial giant Toshiba has informed also about the closure of coal-fueled power plants. It is also withdrawing from construction of new coal-fired power plants and looking to pivot its business toward renewable power enterprises.

In Japan, Hitachi Ltd. had already withdrawn from the coal business, leaving Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and IHI Corp as the remaining major makers of coal-fired plants.

The German company Siemens AG announced on Nov. 10 that it will no longer construct new coal plants, while General Electric Co. of the United States also plans to withdraw from the business.

Toshiba constructs nuclear, thermal, hydro and other types of power plants, and provides maintenance and inspection services for them.