 Budget for Tokyo's small businesses cut by two thirds since Ishihara became governor In its budget for FY 2005, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to reduce its expenditure for small- and medium-sized businesses in disregard of the hardships small business owners are experiencing under the prolonged economic recession. Funding for Tokyo's small businesses will have been reduced by two thirds (about 120 billion yen) to 212.6 billion yen since Governor Ishihara Shintaro's administration was established in 1999. Small business owners have long wanted the metropolitan government to increase the loan ceiling and improve the loan-refinancing system. The Ishihara government has shifted small businesses' fund raising method using the "metropolitan government's loan program" to one of "direct financing" in which funds for small businesses come directly from investors. Accordingly, interest rates on loans have been increased to the same level as private banking facilities. Furthermore, the Ishihara government abolished the consulting institute for small enterprises along with the textile research institute, terminated the program to revitalize the technopolis, and cut back public support for all industries, including traditional industries. A machine-processing manufacturer in Tokyo's Ota Ward, known as the district of family-run workshops, said, "At a time when many small businesses are going bankrupt, the budget cut will have an adverse effect on them. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government should improve its support measures because the small firms are the basis of the nation's economy, particularly in the manufacturing sector" With the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election scheduled for July, the Japanese Communist Party is demanding that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government significantly increase funding for small businesses, make efforts to promote each industry, increase sources of the "metropolitan government's loan program" as well as its loan ceiling, expand the loan-refinancing system, continue the project to stimulate Tokyo's industrial districts, improve the project to revitalize shopping districts, and bring back the past system to support family-run small shops. (end) |