The trade ministry plans to boost spending on energy resources in the year starting next April after prices rose and competition increased from countries with booming economies, including China and India.
The ministry's Natural Resources Agency is seeking an 11 percent rise in its budget to ¥18.97 billion to secure supplies of oil, natural gas and uranium, it said in a statement Friday. The agency also requested a 19 percent increase in funds to promote cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Japan, which imports about 99 percent of its oil, has stepped up efforts to secure supplies of crude and uranium, after prices surged to record levels. The cost of uranium, the fuel used for nuclear power, has risen more than tenfold in the last decade, as India and China plan to build more nuclear power stations to feed their growing economies.
The ministry's Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency wants to raise its budget by 1.6 percent to ¥38.4 billion, it said in a separate statement Friday. The gain is mainly to fund a 50 percent increase in spending for enhancing earthquake resistance at nuclear plants and preventing other disasters.
The Finance Ministry will complete the national budget in December after reviewing the proposals submitted by each ministry by the end of August.
Japan, the world's second-biggest economy, wants to expand nuclear power to cut greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels. The government plans to raise the share of atomic energy in power generation to more than 40 percent by 2030 from 30 percent today.