Japanese government presents record budget proposal for 2025 – Observer

The Japanese Government approved this Friday a draft budget for 2025 worth a record 115.54 billion yen (700 billion euros)marked by the rise in spending on social security and defense.

The budget proposal raises concerns about the health of the public finances of the fourth largest economy in the world — in a context of political fragility of Shigeru Ishiba’s Executive.

The Liberal Democratic Party, who has governed the country for almost 70 yearslost its parliamentary majority in October, leaving parliament locked down ever since.

This proposed law surpasses the previous record of 114.38 trillion yen (695 billion euros) set in fiscal year 2023. The Japanese fiscal year begins next April.

The bill will be presented to the Diet, the lower house of the Japanese Parliament, for deliberation during the ordinary session that begins next month.

Japan conveys concern to Beijing over China’s military activities

At the same time as theAnticipates record fiscal revenue of 78.44 billion yen (475 billion euros) for fiscal 2025anchored on the good performance of Japanese companies, the Ishiba government also plans to issue public debt in the amount of 28.65 billion yen (176 billion euros) to help finance the budget, still an amount that, by For the first time in 17 years, it is less than 30 trillion yen (183 billion euros).

Around a third of the budget, i.e. a record 38.28 trillion yen (231 billion euros), will be used to cover social security costs, which have increased as Japan confronts the rapid aging of the population and attempts to improve support for child care in a context of declining birth rates.

Defense expenditure totals 8.7 trillion yen (55 billion euros), exceeding, for the first time, eight trillion yen, with Japan showing clear signs of strengthening its capabilities to face regional threatsin a context of China’s rapid military development and growing tensions with North Korea and Russia.

The defense budget, which rises for the 13th consecutive yearincludes expenses for the large-scale production of long-range missiles, with defense capabilities against isolated attacks, that is, against adversaries outside their range of action.