The Japanese government has announced a package of measures to help small and medium companies face rising global fuel prices. The subsidy ceiling on gasoline, diesel and kerosene will be lifted to JPY 25/l (US$22c/l) as of 10 March 2022, which should cost the budget reserves around JPY 350bn (US$3bn). In February 2022, Japan implemented a temporary subsidy programme, whose amount has already been raised twice to JPY 5/l (US$4c/l). Plans for the new fiscal year starting in April 2022 will depend on the Ukraine situation. The country will consider various options to curb prices, including freeing up a trigger clause on gasoline tax, i.e., trimming taxes on gasoline and diesel when gasoline prices hover above JPY 160/l (US$1.38/l) for three months in a row; this trigger clause was removed in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011 to finance earthquake rebuilding.
In addition, Japan plans to release 7.5 mbl of oil from privately-held reserves, as part of the International Energy Agency's coordinated release of 60 mbl of oil to mitigate surging crude oil prices. Moreover, the country plans to sell another 1.64 mbl of Khafji and Hout (Saudi Arabia) crude oil from its national reserves through public tenders in March 2022 and another 692 kbl of Hout crude oil in April 2022. At the end of 2021, Japan held around 484 mbl of petroleum reserves, i.e., 241 days of domestic demand.