Budgetary requests for fiscal 2010 from all ministries and agencies — the first such requests under the Hatoyama administration — total a record ¥95.038 trillion. Compared with the fiscal 2009 main and supplementary budgets (¥102 trillion-plus), the sum is smaller, but not against the initial fiscal 2009 budget (¥88.548 trillion).

The Democratic Party of Japan has accused the previous Aso administration of fiscal waste. If the current administration fails to tighten the budget, it will face the same criticism. The size of the budgetary requests prompted Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii to express the hope of reducing the budget to "¥92 trillion or less." Then he mentioned "¥90 trillion or less."

It is imperative that the government retrench on wasteful projects while giving priority to such items as child rearing and education, medical and nursing care services, pensions, local autonomy and employment — as the DPJ promised during its campaign for the Aug. 30 Lower House election. At the same time, though, the government should be ready to be flexible on its election promises to meet anticipated fund shortages. It could put some election promises off to fiscal 2011.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has proposed issuing bonds to cover budget deficits, but later added that if the people's will appears to be strongly in favor of capping bond issuance, the government may follow in that direction. Thus the hint that some DPJ election promises could be shelved. Routine reliance on deficit-covering bonds should be avoided.

The initial fiscal 2009 budget envisaged ¥46 trillion in tax revenue, but it is feared that the actual amount may fall below ¥40 trillion. The government should adjust to this contingency by cutting spending. Administrative Reform Minister Yoshito Sengoku and the Administrative Reform Conference have the important task of striking "wasteful" projects from budgetary requests. Because of poor prospects for job-seekers at present, utmost care should be taken to prevent the economy from slipping further. This will require a thoughtful balancing act on the part of the government.