Japan stimulus package reaches $716B

TOKYO, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Japan has unveiled new economic stimulus proposals including creating new jobs and housing, pushing the package's cost to $716 billion, officials said.

The pump-priming measures from Prime Minister Taro Aso's Cabinet are meant to address Japan's deteriorating job market. The latest package unveiled Friday concentrates on creating new job opportunities, offering housing to the unemployed and stabilizing the financial markets, The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported.

Aso's proposals also seek to prevent stock price plunges and to spur the Banks' Shareholdings Purchase Corp. into buying stocks by instituting government guarantees worth $224 billion on its purchases. The private corporation was created jointly by the government and financial institutions to buy bank shares.

Aso first unveiled the stimulus program earlier this month. When combined with other measures by the prime minister in October, the total will be worth about $716 billion, a sharp increase from the $500 billion that was initially envisioned, Yomiuri Shimbun reported.