Japan govt. approves winter energy support package - NHKニュース

The Japanese government has decided to spend more than 650 billion yen, or about 4.07 billion dollars, on measures to reduce utility bills and kerosene prices during the winter.

The decision to use a special reserve fund for the current fiscal year was approved at a Cabinet meeting on Friday.

Around 3.26 billion dollars will be used to lower electricity and gas bills from December through February.

The government plans to subsidize about 0.6 cents per kilowatt hour in December and about 2.8 cents per kilowatt hour in January and February. It estimates this will reduce an average household's utility bills by about 44 dollars during the period.

About 813 million dollars will also be provided to local governments for measures to lower liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene prices.

The reserve fund was set up to keep gasoline prices from soaring and to alleviate the impact from the Middle East crisis. The upcoming spending will leave about 525 million dollars remaining in the fund.