The administration aims to limit new debt issuance for the next fiscal year below tax revenue, Finance Minister Taro Aso said, underscoring the intention to maintain resolve for rehabilitating the country's ailing public finances.
Aso, also deputy prime minister, is in charge of drafting an initial budget for fiscal 2013. The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is planning to approve the draft budget next Tuesday and submit it to the Diet, whose ordinary session opens Monday.
"I want tax revenue to be bigger than the amount of new bond issuance," Aso said. If the administration can pull it off, it would be the first time in four years.