Every year, around the month of June, the "policy season" arrives in Japan — with the government adopting the outline of its economic policies. On June 15, this year's Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and the Future Investment Strategy were approved by the Cabinet. Even though the government's draft budget is formulated in December, the outline of policies that form the basis of the budget are decided during this season.
This timetable of separating the economic policy discussions and the budget formulation was established in 2001 by the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The Democratic Party of Japan-led government (2009-2012) put the process back to the old timetable (of both holding the policy discussions and formulating the budget in December), but the practice was revived in 2013 under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Also under the Abe administration, the policy discussions have been held in two-pronged ways — the economic and fiscal management policy mainly dealing with macroeconomic policies, and the future investment strategy discussing microeconomic structural reforms.
I would like to highlight three points about this year's policy outline.