Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2017 February 22 - 28 [POLITICS]

Highest-scaled FY2017 draft budget passed through Lower House

The House of Representatives passed a government-submitted draft budget for fiscal 2017 through its plenary session on February 27 by the majority vote of the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties and sent the military-oriented draft to the House of Councilors. Opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party and the Democratic Party, voted against the proposed budget.

The amount of planned expenditures from the general account will total about 97.5 trillion yen, hitting a record high for five straight years.

Before the vote, JCP representative Fujino Yasufumi pointed out that the annual income of workers decreased almost by 190,000 yen on average after the inauguration of the Abe regime and that real consumption by households with two or more family members continues to decline for the 16th consecutive month. Fujino in opposition to the draft budget stated, “It is clear that a ‘virtuous cycle’ of the economy has not arisen as Prime Minister Abe claims.”

The JCP, in a Lower House Budget Committee meeting held prior to the House plenary session, presented a motion to drastically recompile the budget. Explaining the motion, JCP lawmaker Hatayama Kazuya said that the budget should give priority to countermeasures against economic inequalities and poverty over military affairs. The motion was, however, voted down.

* * *

JCP Chair Shii Kazuo, after the passage of the FY2017 budget draft, held a press conference. He said that the proposed budget will make massive cutbacks in social security spending on the one hand and earmark the largest-ever funds totaling 5.1 trillion yen for arms spending on the other. He criticized the draft budget as adversely affecting people’s livelihoods and peace. Shii said that the JCP in the House of Councilors will continue singling out problematic points of the draft.

Past related article:
> Gov’t initial budget draft epitomizes its hardline policy of arms expansion: JCP Koike [December 23, 2016]