The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will accept fresh requests from ministries and agencies for the fiscal 2010 budget until Oct. 15 in its process of redrafting the previous administration's spending plan from scratch, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Monday.
In the first meeting of a Cabinet committee on basic policies attended by key ministers, participants agreed that the administration will closely examine the spending plans by the Liberal Democratic Party government and try to slash wasteful expenditures, Hirano said.
Hatoyama said after the meeting that the Japanese people expect the new administration to eliminate government waste so that more money can go to social support.