ニュース 2012/03/08 2012 budget approved by House of Representatives On March 8, three pieces of legislation for the fiscal 2012 budget were approved by the plenary session of the House of Representatives, and sent to the House of Councillors. The legislation comprised a bill for general account budget funding of approximately 90.3 trillion yen in total, as well as bills relating to budgetary funding for special accounts, and for government-related institutions. Within the budget, a Great East Japan Earthquake Special Account has been established, and 3.8 trillion yen’s worth of reconstruction funding included to ensure that reconstruction efforts can proceed continuously and at full throttle. Furthermore, measures that focus on Japan’s revitalization will be implemented in order to achieve the true revitalization of our national economy, emphasizing the allocation of approximately 1 trillion yen in budgetary funding to the following four areas: (1) new frontiers and the new growth strategy (strengthening the growth platform in areas including science and technology, energy, ocean and space technology, and improving infrastructure), (2) developing human resources such as through education (including sports) and employment, (3) revitalization of the regions (including new policies for promoting Okinawa development), and (4) realizing a safe and secure society. In addition, proposal-based policy screening and similar measures will be appropriately reflected in the budget, with strict elimination of wasteful spending in the public sector ensuring that the ‘medium-term fiscal framework’ (spending within the framework of 68.4 trillion yen, and issuing new government bonds to the amount of 44 trillion yen) can be strictly followed and we can achieve a better balance in allocation of budget funds. The budget legislation had been approved by a government majority in the House of Representatives Committee on Budget that same morning, and had then been added as an urgent item to the agenda for the plenary session of the House of Representatives. In the plenary session, the Chair of the Committee on Budget, the DPJ’s Hiroshi Nakai, reported on the progress and results of deliberations in committee, and following this, DPJ Diet member Yasuhiko Wakai made a speech in favour of the legislation.