Japan to suspend part of extra budget

JAPAN: Japan’s new government said Friday that it would freeze part of its predecessor’s extra budget to weed out wasteful spending, but insisted it was committed to reviving the economy.

Japan’s new centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has pledged to put more money in the pockets of ordinary people with cash allowances for families, free high-school education and an end to highway tolls.

Hatoyama instructed his cabinet members to suspend part of the extra budget, worth 13.9 trillion yen (152 billion dollars), Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told reporters.

Hatoyama instructed each minister to review all of the public projects related to the additional budget for this fiscal year and to report back by October 2, said Hirano, the top government spokesman. Former premier Taro Aso pushed a supplementary budget through parliament in May to fund his economic stimulus measures.

The new government has criticised some projects planned under the pump-priming measures, such as a national media arts centre aimed at promoting manga cartoons and animated films, and repairs to government buildings.

But ministers insisted Friday that they were committed to fiscal spending to boost the economy, which has been battered by its worst recession in decades.

“It’s not that we will stop fiscal spending, but we will review the contents of the spending,” said Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who was picked by Hatoyama to head a new national strategy bureau.

“Our party has recognised the necessity of fiscal spending in the world after the collapse of Lehman Brothers,” he told reporters, a year after the collapse of the Wall Street bank rocked world markets.

“Employment conditions are worsening and we can’t reduce our vigilance over the economic situation. I understand that we need to have solid economic policies to address the situation,” Kan said. TOKYO, Friday, AFP