March 1, 2023

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The government-proposed draft budget for fiscal 2023 was approved at the House of Representatives plenary session on February 28 by the majority vote of the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties and sent to the House of Councilors. The general account of the draft budget totals 114.4 trillion yen, hitting an all-time high. The defense budget for the next fiscal year will increase by 1.4 trillion yen from the previous year to 6.8 trillion yen, the first installment of a five-year, 43 trillion-yen military spending plan based on the three key national security policy documents which declare Japan’s possession of an enemy-base strike capability.

Under the proposed budget, the government will use unusual means to secure funds for the huge military buildup.

Along with the defense budget, the government will set up a 4.5-trillion-yen fund under the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry for the purpose of strengthening Japan’s defense capabilities. The 4.5 trillion yen will come from the special account, the selling of national properties, public hospitals’ reserve funds, and leftovers of the budget for COVID-19 countermeasures. In addition, as measures to finance the planned huge military buildup, the government intends to use tax revenues aimed at helping rebuild the 2011 disaster-hit Tohoku region and issue government construction bonds.

Successive LDP governments denied the issuance of government construction bonds for military spending. The Kishida government attempt to issue government bonds will go counter to the lessons of history in which Japan raised funds for its past war of aggression by issuing government bonds, leading to the immiseration of people’s daily lives.

The government in its budget draft will slash the annual increase in spending on social services associated with the growth in the ageing population.

Although Prime Minister Kishida claimed that he will implement “different dimension” child-support measures, he failed to provide concrete policies during Diet discussions on the draft budget. Regarding his plan to double the child-related budget, he only repeated that he will indicate how to achieve this in the so-called big-boned policy (Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform) scheduled to be announced in June. Furthermore, he presented no effective measures to tackle the ongoing price surge.

The Japanese Communist Party submitted a proposal pointing to the need to change the military-centric budget draft to a people-oriented one and expressed its determination to conduct thorough Diet deliberation at the Upper House to achieve this.

Past related article:
> JCP Miyamoto: Kishida gov’t should not use public hospitals’ reserve funds to finance huge arms buildup [February 2, 2023]