UNDERSTANDING
THE JAPANESE BUDGET

2003

 

 

BUDGET BUREAU
MINISTRY OF FINANCE


CONTENTS

PREFACE

I

  BUDGET SYSTEM AND PROCESS
  1. Overview
  2. Fiscal Year
  3. Types of Budgets
    (1) General Account budget
    (2) Special Account budgets
    (3) Budgets of government-affiliated agencies
  4. Composition of the Budget
    (1) General provisions
    (2) Revenues and expenditures budget
    (3) Continued expenses
    (4) Approved carried-over expenses
    (5) Contract authorization
  5. Fiscal Investment and Loan Program (FILP)
    (1) Introduction
    (2) Outline of the FILP
    (3) Procedure of Planning FILP and Discussions in the Diet
    (4) Fundamental Reform of FILP
  6. Fiscal System Council
  7. Establishment of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy
  8. Budget Process
    (1) Guidelines for budget requests and submission of requests
    (2) Budget examination by the Budget Bureau of the MOF and approval of the Draft Budget by the Cabinet
    (3) Parliamentary budget deliberation
  9. Execution of the Budget
    (1) Execution of the Budget
    (2) National Treasury System
  10. Provisional and Supplementary Budgets
  11. Settlement of Accounts
    (1) Settlement of accounts
    (2) Carried-over surpluses
    (3) Settlement Adjustment Fund
  12. Government Bonds
    (1) Construction bond principle and the avoidance of issuing special deficit-financing bonds
    (2) Prohibition of the use of central bank credit
    [Reference] The Public Finance Law [Law No. 34 of 1947]
    [Reference] Redemption of government bonds

II

  HISTORY OF PUBLIC FINANCE AND THE CURRENT FISCAL SITUATION
    (1) Situation until FY1974 - from a balanced budget to the issuance of government bonds -
    (2) Expansion of fiscal deficit in the late 1970s
    (3) Efforts toward fiscal consolidation since the 1980s
    (4) Economic stimulus measures in the 1990s
    (5) Enactment and Suspension of the "Fiscal Structural Reform Act"
    (6) Efforts towards economic recovery
    (7) The Koizumi administration's efforts towards fiscal consolidation

III

  OUTLINE OF THE FY2003 BUDGET
  1. Underlying Economic Circumstances and Their Countermeasures in Japan
  2. Highlights of the FY2003 Budget
  3. Overall Picture of the FY2003 Budget
  4. Budget for Special Accounts
  5. The FILP Plan for FY2003

IV

  BUDGET PROGRAM BY FUNCTION
  1. Social Security
    (1) Outline of the social security system in Japan
    (2) The aging of the population and the increase in social security-related expenditures
    (3) Future projections of costs and benefits concerning social security
    (4) Efforts to reform the social security system
    (5) Overview of the Social Security Related Expenditure for FY2003 (general account)
  2. Public Works
    (1) Public investment
    (2) Structural Reform and Medium-Term Economic and Fiscal Perspectives (approved by the Cabinet on January 25th, 2002)
    (3) Public works expenditures
    [Reference] Types of public works
    (4) Highlights of Public Investment related FY2002 budgets
  3. Education and Science
    (1) Introduction
    (2) FY2003 budget
  4. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
    (1) Outline
    (2) Food Stable Supply
    (3) Forestry and fisheries assistance
  5. Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
  6. Economic Cooperation
    (1) The significance of economic cooperation
    (2) ODA
    (3) Japan's ODA (FY1994-FY2002)
    (4) FY2002 budget measures
  7. National Defense
    (1) Japan's Self-Defence Capacity
    (2) Japan's Defense Build-Up
    (3) Outline of FY2003 Defence Budget
  8. Energy
  9. Local Government Finance
    (1) Fiscal Relationship between the Central and Local Governments
    (2) Local Public Finance Program (LPEP)
  10. National Debt Service
  11. Reducing the Number of Civil Servants

V

  CURRENT JAPANESE FISCAL CONDITION
  1. Current Japan's Fiscal Condition
  2. General Government Fiscal Position
    (1) General government financial balance
    (2) General government gross debt
    [Reference] Problems associated in using figures based on "general government basis"
  3. National Burden Ratio
  4. Projection of the FY2003 Budget's Effects on Outlays and Revenues through FY2006
  5. Measures for Fiscal Consolidation
    [Reference] Primary Balance

APPENDIXES
    Appendix A. Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Policy Management and Structural Reform 2002
    Appendix B. Guidelines for Formulation of the FY2003 Budget
    Appendix C. Program to Accelerate Reforms
    Appendix D. Outline of the Supplementary budget for Fiscal Year 2002
    Appendix E. Reform and Perspectives - FY2002 Revision

CHARTS & TABLES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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