Government ministries and agencies have submitted a record-high budget request of 96.75 trillion Yen for fiscal 2011, topping by 1.8 percent the corresponding 95.04 trillion Yen figure for fiscal 2010, which was also a record. Election pledges by the Democratic Party of Japan, automatic increases in social security costs, and debt-servicing costs have bloated the budget requests.
The government will have difficulty trimming these requests as it drafts the fiscal 2011 budget. The initial fiscal 2010 budget was slashed to 92.3 trillion Yen, and still amounted to a record. If former DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa beats Prime Minister Naoto Kan in the party's presidential election and becomes prime minister, there will be more pressure to expand the budget because he appears to favor big spending.