Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda faces escalating pressure to secure support for higher taxes after the budget plan for fiscal 2012 revealed the government's record dependence on borrowing.
The government will sell ¥44.2 trillion of new bonds to fund ¥90.3 trillion of spending, raising the budget's reliance on debt to an unprecedented 49 percent, a draft approved by the Cabinet on Dec. 24 showed.
While spending will drop for the first time in six years, Noda will delay funding the nation's pension fund and create a separate budget account to pay for earthquake reconstruction.