The new government was experiencing difficulty Friday financing key policies as ministries rushed to beat a major deadline for reporting savings from the fiscal 2009 extra budget, findings by Kyodo News show.
So far, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet is expected to salvage around ¥2 trillion from the already-approved ¥14.7 trillion extra budget, well below the roughly ¥3 trillion it targeted.
How much money the Hatoyama administration will be able to redirect from the extra budget, which was crafted by the previous administration, is being viewed as a litmus test for its ability to hold the reins of government.
The Liberal Democratic Party-led government drafted the largest extra budget in Japanese history to carry out a range of stimulus programs it thought would be effective in helping the economy recover.
Ministries and agencies have been asked by the new Democratic Party of Japan-led government, launched Sept. 16, to review their budget allocations and redirect as much of the slated funds as possible to its key policies, including child-rearing funds and free expressway tolls.