The government said Friday it will cut spending for its five-year defense program by 92 billion yen to conform to its ongoing financial structural reform, the Defense Agency said.
The decision, which sets the budget at 24.23 trillion yen, was reached at Friday's meeting of the Security Council of Japan and a following Cabinet meeting, the agency said. "Considering the present financial and economic circumstances, (the government) decided to cut 10 percent, or 92 billion yen, off the remaining contract in the program," said Defense Agency chief Fumio Kyuma.
Initially, the 1996-2000 defense program was to be reviewed in fiscal 1998, instead of this year. The buildup, approved in 1995 under a new National Defense Program Outline, had called for a total budget of 25.15 trillion yen, up 13 percent from the 1991-95 budget.