The Cabinet on Thursday approved the final version of an austere 77.67 trillion yen general account budget for fiscal 1998, up only 0.4 percent from the initial budget for the current fiscal year.
The general expenditures portion of the budget -- spending related to policy implementation -- was reduced by 1.3 percent to 44.54 trillion yen, marking the first decrease in 11 years.
The budget also features the first year-on-year reduction in spending on official development assistance. Roughly 2 billion yen to help prepare for the relocation of the U.S. military's Futenma Air Station in Okinawa was not included in the budget as an individual item. Instead, the outlays, which will cover such projects as environmental feasibility surveys, will come from the fiscal 1998 budget's reserve funds if and when needed.