Government ministries and agencies are showing little enthusiasm for abolishing or reducing the amount of subsidies to public corporations under their jurisdiction, according to their individual reform plans released Friday.
The plans, unveiled by the government's office of administrative reform, concern 172 public entities subject to review for subsidy cuts.
Of the 103 entities that pass on more than half of the funds they receive from the state to subcontractors, ministries and agencies said 20 entities would be difficult to reform.
In fiscal 2000, the 103 entities received 180 billion yen in subsidies from the state for 192 projects, including some 100 billion yen for 37 projects carried out by the 20 targeted organizations.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry and the labor ministry opposed eliminating subsidies to three of the 29 entities that provide remuneration with funds partly financed by state subsidies.
A total of 75 executives received such remuneration, worth some 1.2 billion yen, including 13 people at the three entities in question, who received 200 million yen.
The three include the Interchange Association. Its duties include issuing visas to people visiting Taiwan, with which Japan has no diplomatic ties.
The administrative reform office said 86 corporations are heavily dependent on subsidies, drawing more than two-thirds of their revenue from them and totaling around 300 billion yen in fiscal 2000.
There was opposition to ending subsidies or undertaking other reforms with 33 of the 86 that received about 160 billion yen in subsidies.
Streamlining these entities is one of the priority policy areas of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who is pushing an agenda of structural reform to pull Japan out of its economic crisis.