Budget Request Marks Record High

The Ministry of Finance closed the budget request for FY 2025 from each ministry on August 31. Followed by policy agenda set by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to enhance defense of Japan, Ministry of Defense requested ever highest amount of budget for offensive equipment. Spendings for social security is keep on growing, while the government needs to pay for the rising interest of Japanese government bonds. The total amount of the budget does not stop swelling.

The total request is estimated to amount to the record high of 117 trillion yen, increasing from FY 2024 by 1 percent. Some ministries have been requesting their spendings without indicating actual amount these years. It is likely that final amount is going to increase accordingly. It is for four consecutive years that exceeded 110 trillion yen.

 

Request for defense budget exceeded 8 trillion yen for the first time. It is 8.5389 trillion yen, growing by 7.4 percent from the previous year. Kishida administration decided in December 2022 to secure 43 trillion yen of defense budget for five years between FY 2023 and 2027. FY 2025 is the third year for the increase of defense budget.

 

Request of 970 billion yen is for obtaining striking capability on enemy’s base, which the government call counter-strike capability. 323 billion yen will be spent for developing “satellite constellation,” which can detect and trace the target from multiple satellites. The request also includes cost for long-range missiles and building powder magazines necessary for deployment of the missiles. The Defense Ministry also introduces offensive drone for the first time.

 

The Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan has long been interpreted as demanding the government to have strictly defensive policy. Enemy’s base striking capability brought a controversy that it would violate the basic defense principle of Japan. Leaving that argument aside, Kishida administration has been expanding defense capability, reiterating that “Ukraine today is East Asia tomorrow.”

 

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare requested 34.2763 trillion yen for FY 2025, which marked the record high and was the greatest among the ministries. Kishida focuses on preventive measures against declining birth rate and appropriate the budget for it by cutting spendings for social security. However, the ministry estimates natural increase of the cost for social security to be 410 billion yen. Kishida will step down this fall without showing how the government can reduce the welfare budget.

 

The government is going to pay 28.9116 trillion yen for government bonds, out of which 10.9320 trillion yen will be paid for the interest of JGBs. The Bank of Japan get rid of negative interest policy and long-term interest rate is rising these months. The government raised its estimation of interest rate for the payment from 1.9 percent in FY 2024 to 2.1 percent in FY 2025.

 

No criticism is heard on outgoing prime minister leaving huge spendings for next year. The leading party, the Liberal Democratic Party, devotes its energy to the presidential election to maintain its status of ruling. The leading opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party, also focuses on its leader’s election to regain power.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when COVID-19 was preval
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, which is
Read more

Death Penalty Demanded on Criminal of Arson

On the historically brutal case of arson, the public prosecutors demanded an ultimate penalty to the offender. In the trial on the arson and murder in Kyoto Animation in 2019, the prosecutors requested death penalty on the defendant, Shinji Aoba. The lawyers of Aoba argued that the court should avoid sentencing death penalty. The judgement will be passed next January. Aoba was indicted as putting fire after pouring gasoline in the building of Kyoto Animation (Kyoani), a studio producing animation works, and killed 36 staffs and injured 32 on July 18 th , 2019. In the trial, Aoba argued that he could not tolerate Kyoani, because it had stolen his novel story in its works. Aoba later apologized to the victim’s families that he had done too much and regretted it.   In the closing argument in Kyoto Regional Court, the prosecutors demanded death penalty for Aoba, because the number of victims were extremely high in the history of criminal trials in Japan. “It is hard to describe about how t
Read more