Fujii Says Japan Will Draft Plan for Unused Budget
Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said the government will draft a plan to redeploy unused funds from the current fiscal year’s extra budget by Oct. 2.
Fujii, whose Democratic Party of Japan took office this week for the first time, is counting on tapping part of former Prime Minister Taro Aso’s 13.9 trillion yen ($153 billion) supplementary budget to implement its election promises ranging from lower public-school tuition to providing childcare aid. Each ministry will be charged with coming up with items that can be slashed from the budget, Fujii said guaranteed unsecured personal loan.
The government will probably be able to extract “several trillion yen” from the budget, which ministers agreed to freeze today, Fujii said at a press conference in Tokyo today.
Naoki Minezaki, 64, acting head of the DPJ’s tax panel, and Yoshihiko Noda, 52, acting secretary general for the party, have been appointed vice finance ministers, Fujii said.