Japan has committed to getting its fiscal house in order despite some concern that it’s too soon to remove support from the economy.
In the honebuto approved by the Cabinet on Friday, the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged a balanced budget other than interest payments by fiscal 2025, bringing back language that had been absent from the document for a couple of years.
The honebuto — which sets economic and fiscal management guidelines for the government — has been issued most years since 2001. The first honebuto was introduced under the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in an effort to gain more control over the drafting of the budget, which has historically been led by the bureaucracy.