The Cabinet approved a ¥92.30 trillion initial budget Friday for fiscal 2010 — the largest ever — allowing Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to fulfill his goal of winding down the drafting process by year's end.
But the size of the general-account budget is larger than Hatoyama was hoping for, stoking long-simmering worries about Japan's fiscal health.
By comparison, the initial budget for fiscal 2009 was ¥88.55 trillion and relied on unprecedented levels of fresh debt issuance and nontax receipts.