The tourism-related budget for fiscal 2010 may be halved to about ¥13 billion in view of an assessment by a key government body tasked with cutting wasteful spending, sources said.
The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has requested a budget of ¥25.1 billion for the Japan Tourism Agency for the year starting in April, a fourfold jump from the initial fiscal 2009 budget.
But the Government Revitalization Unit, in its assessment in November, questioned the effects of agency projects to increase the number of foreign visitors.
Subject to the government body's budget review is a ¥17.7 billion project aimed at promoting tourism to Japan, including airing TV commercials overseas, the sources said.
The assessment is expected to trim the budget for the project to ¥8 billion to ¥9 billion for the coming year.
Also being cut is a budget request meant to alleviate domestic tourism during peak holiday periods such as Golden Week in May.
The ministry proposed the substantial increase in the fiscal 2010 budget request for the tourism agency as a means of attaining its goal of raising the number of foreign tourists to 25 million in 2019, a threefold jump from 2008.