Japan to Tap $7 Billion from Government Fund to Subsidize Gasoline Prices

Japan’s government on Friday decided to tap $7 billion from its contingency reserves to keep subsidies for gasoline and other fuels, even as it plans to gradually scale back the support from December. The Japanese government decided today to allocate about $7 billion (1.1 trillion Japanese yen) from the reserve funds to continue capping retail gasoline prices amid soaring oil and fuel import costs, Japanese media reported. Introduced in March, soon after the war in the Middle East began, the subsidy program has kept the average national gasoline…