NEWSWORTHY
Upper House enacts extra budget worth ¥936 billion for disaster recovery
Lawmakers in the House of Councilors on Wednesday enacted an extra budget worth ¥935.6 billion ($8.3 billion) for fiscal 2018 to fund recovery efforts in the wake of a string of natural disasters across the country earlier this year. The budget for the year through ...
Amid cash crunch, Havana fights trash woes ahead of 500th anniversary of its founding
Luxury hotels are rising fast along the Prado, the tree-lined colonial boulevard that is home to many of Havana's best-known architectural masterworks. Yet within sight of five-star lodgings charging $500 a night, stray cats and flies swarm mountains of uncollected trash. Piles reeking of rotting ...
U.S. spending on civilian and military intelligence services soars under Trump
U.S. spending on intelligence has soared under President Donald Trump, figures released on Tuesday showed, as the government stepped up cyberwarfare activities and boosted spying on North Korea, China and Russia. Spending on civilian and military intelligence jumped by 11.6 percent to $81.5 billion in ...
Finance Ministry seeks cuts of ¥1 trillion to Japan's defense budget over next five years
The Finance Ministry on Wednesday called for cuts of ¥1 trillion off the nation's defense budget over the next five years through more cost-effective procurement of equipment including destroyers and fighter jets. The ministry is seeking to include the spending cut in the Defense Ministry ...
On the opening day of the fall Diet session, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe submitted a draft supplementary budget for fiscal 2018 to fund recovery efforts after a string of natural disasters devastated large areas of the country. The ¥935.6 billion spending plan ...
Abe says he's going ahead with Japan's consumption tax hike in October 2019
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Abe asked relevant ministers to come up with measures to mitigate negative impacts of the increase.
Congress passes $854 billion spending bill without funds for Mexico wall, sending it to Trump
The U.S. House passed an $854 billion spending bill Wednesday that ramps up military funding but does not include President Donald Trump's cherished border wall, sending him the measure days before the government runs out of money. The bipartisan measure, which passed 361-61, funds the ...
Foreign caregiver trainees to receive financial aid for Japanese lessons
The labor ministry will set up a financial aid system to help foreign caregiver trainees learn Japanese and acquire technical knowledge.
Japanese government budget requests for next year hit record ¥102.8 trillion
Overall general-account budget requests by government ministries and agencies for fiscal 2019 have hit a record high of ¥102.8 trillion, the Finance Ministry said Friday. The actual total of budget requests for the year is certain to grow further. Government spending on measures to alleviate ...
Abe eyes ¥1 trillion extra budget for disaster relief measures
The government is set to compile a supplementary budget worth about ¥1 trillion ($9 billion) for the current fiscal year to fund recovery efforts related to recent natural disasters, sources with knowledge of the plans said Friday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is aiming to submit ...
Japan's Defense Ministry eyes record defense budget amid North Korean and Chinese threats
The budget proposal released Friday calls for defense spending to rise 2.1 percent to ¥5.3 trillion for the year starting April 1.
Japan to promote use of empty buildings as satellite offices
The land ministry aims to support efforts to utilize the country's empty buildings as satellite offices or shared workspaces, according to informed sources. The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry hopes to have related costs included in its budget request for fiscal 2019, which starts ...
