The Budgetary System in Japan
| Date | 01 June 1982 |
| Author | The Ministry of Finance |
| DOI | 10.1177/002085238204800212 |
| Published date | 01 June 1982 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The
Budgetary
System
in
Japan
UDC :
336.12
(52)
by
THE
MINISTRY
OF
FINANCE
INTRODUCTION
The
system
and
practice
of
budgeting
dif-
fers
from
country
to
country
due
to
the
di-
versity
of
historical
and
cultural
backgrounds.
In
Japan,
fundamental
matters
concerning
national
public
finance
are
contained
in
the
Constitution,
the
Public
Finance
Law
and
the
Accounts
Law.
In
the
following
chapters,
we
would
like
to
outline
the
budget
system
and
the
budget
process
of
the
national
government,
and
describe
the
current
state
of
public
finance
in
Japan.
PART
I:
BUDGET
SYSTEM
AND
BUDGET
PROCESS
CHAPTER
I.
THE
BUDGET
I.
TYPES
OF
BUDGETS
The
Government
budget
consists
of
the
General
Account
budget
and
38
Special
Ac-
count
budgets.
These
budgets
are
submitted
along
with
budgets
of
15
government-affiliated
agencies
to
the
National
Diet
for
approval.
1.
The
General
Account
Budget
The
General
Account
is
the
basic
account
to
promote
the
major
programs
of
the
Govern-
ment
such
as
social
security,
education,
de-
fence,
public
works,
economic
co-operation
and
energy
measures.
Therefore,
the
General
Account
budget
directly
reflects
Government
policies.
In
everyday
use,
the
single
word
&dquo;
Budget &dquo;
often
refers
to
the
General
Account
budget.
All
national
taxes
are
appropriated
in
the
revenue
of
the
General
Account
except
for
local
road
taxes,
special
tonnage
taxes,
taxes
promoting
electricity
source
development,
one-half
of
all
oil
and
gasoline
taxes,
a
portion
of
the
customs
duty
imposed
upon
crude
oil,
a
quarter
of
all
automobile
weight
taxes
and
two-
thirteenths
of
aircraft
fuel
taxes.
2.
The
Special
Account
Budgets
Special
Accounts
may
be
established
under
limited
conditions
fixed
by
legislation.
These
may
be
instituted
when
the
Government
carries
out
specific
projects,
administers
and
manages
specific
funds,
or
when
it
becomes
necessary
to
administer
some
items
of
revenue
and
ex-
penditure
separately
from
other
more
general
revenue
and
expenditure.
Each
Special
Ac-
count
has
its
own
distinct
source
of
revenue
(receipts
from
government
enterprises
admin-
istered
under
Special
Accounts,
contributions
for
social
insurance,
interest
revenue
from
loans
and
so
forth).
The
revenue
of
some
Special
Accounts
may
include
funds
obtained
by
borrowing.
Foreign
bonds
can
be
issued
through
the
Industrial
Investment
Special
Ac-
count.
Established
Special
Accounts
include
those
of the
Printing
Bureau,
postal
service,
roads
improvement,
health
and
welfare
in-
surance,
labor
insurance,
the
National
Schools,
foodstuff
control,
the
Trust
Fund
Bureau,
allotment
of
local
allocation
tax
and
trans-
ferred
tax,
and
the
Debt
Consolidation
Fund.
The
total
amount
of
Special
Account
ex-
penditure
for
the
1981
fiscal
year
amounted
to
99,013.7
billion
yen.
3.
The
Budgets
of
Government-A f f iliated
Agencies
The
budgets
provide
government-affiliated
agencies
with
as
much
flexibility
as
possible
in
personnel
management
and
accounting,
and
in
order
to
achieve
greater
efficiency
through
corporate-like
management,
they
are
created
as
organs
separate
from
the
Government.
These
organs
are
public
corporations
wholly
financed
by
the
Government.
Government-
affiliated
agencies
remain
closely
tied
to
Gov-
ernment
policies,
and
their
budgets
are
subject
to
approval
by
the
National
Diet.
The
Japan
Tobacco
and
Salt
Public
Corporation,
Japan-
ese
National
Railways,
the
Nippon
Telegraph
and
Telephone
Public
Corporation,
the
People’s
Finance
Corporation,
the
Housing
Loan
Cor-
poration,
and
the
Japan
Development
Bank
are
examples
of
government-affiliated
agen-
cies.
The
total
amount
of
expenditure
for
govern-
ment-affiliated
agencies
in
the
budget
for
the
1981
fiscal
year
was
22,222
billion
yen.
II.
COMPOSITION
OF THE
BUDGET
The
Public
Finance
Law
stipulates
the
com-
position
of
the
Budget
submitted
to
the
Na-
tional
Diet.
The
Budget
consists
of
general
provisions,
revenue
and
expenditure
budget,
continued
expenses,
approved
expenses
to
be
carried
over
to
the
following
year
(carried-
over
expenses)
and
contract
authorization.
To continue reading
Request your trial