At the halfway mark in its spending review, the Government Revitalization Unit has recommended cutting ¥1.3 trillion from fiscal 2010 budget requests or returned to government coffers.
The Government Revitalization Unit is urging that more than ¥400 billion be reduced from budget requests by ministries for the fiscal year starting April 1, while also recommending that around ¥900 billion already distributed to various government entities be returned.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Justice Ministry's request for ¥100 million to fund promotion of the lay judge system, which commenced earlier this year, was effectively turned down.
Earlier in the day, the panel scrapped a ¥5.8 billion budget request by the science and technology ministry to keep funding the new GX rocket.
Tens of billions of yen have already been spent on developing the rocket and another ¥100 billion is believed necessary to complete the project.
The GX is a two-stage rocket under joint development by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, IHI Corp. and U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. It is smaller than the current mainstay H-IIA rocket and is intended to be used as a launch vehicle for small and midsize commercial satellites.
Costs have increased sharply since JAXA hit a snag in the development of a liquefied natural gas-powered engine for the rocket's second stage.