Japan’s Mimura: ASEAN economies must tackle energy shock, inflation

The framing here matters more than the headline: a Japanese currency official prescribing targeted, temporary fiscal support for ASEAN is effectively describing the template Tokyo wants to see across the region, including at home. That signals the debate has shifted from whether to cushion the energy and inflation shock to how narrowly and how briefly. The open question is whether governments under pressure can keep support temporary, since the credibility of that approach depends on exit discipline that is rarely tested well in practice.