The government has adopted guidelines for fiscal 2011 budget requests. Government spending and bond issuance will be at the same levels as in fiscal 2010. For the sake of long-term financial reconstruction, Cabinet ministers must refrain from bloating their budget requests. Since money will be tight, the administration must show ingenuity in determining how the money will be used.
In fiscal 2011, general-account spending, excluding debt servicing cost, will be limited to ¥71 trillion and bond issuance to ¥44 trillion — both at the same levels as in the fiscal 2010 budget, which is the largest budget ever.
In principle, a 10 percent reduction will be imposed on budget requests for policy-related spending. This cut will not be applied to budget requests for social welfare spending, grants from the central government to local governments and the continuation of the already-implemented spending to carry out policies included in the Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto for the 2009 Lower House election, such as the child allowance.