Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared that he will scrap the ¥19 trillion cap the Democratic Party of Japan government had set on the reconstruction budget for areas devastated by the 3/11 triple disasters. He is intent on boosting the image of his administration and the Liberal Democratic Party before the Upper House election next summer.
But his policy is fraught with problems. Mr. Abe appears to think that simply boosting the size of the budget will ensure the reconstruction's smooth progress, but the record so far suggests otherwise.
For fiscal 2011, ¥14.92 trillion was allocated for use in reconstruction-related projects. But ¥5.87 trillion or 39.4 percent was not used by the end of fiscal 2011 on March 31.