Jan 22 (NHK) - The Japanese government has submitted a record draft budget of 97.7 trillion yen, or more than 880-billion dollars, for the fiscal year starting in April.
The budget plan was officially approved at a Cabinet meeting on Monday and submitted to the regular session of the Diet that opened on the same day.
The plan allocates a record of nearly 300 billion dollars for ballooning social security spending as the population ages. It includes funding for childcare facilities to help working parents.
Another record of about 47 billion dollars is tagged for defense amid continued efforts by North Korea to develop nuclear weapons and missiles.
Public works projects will get roughly the same funding as the current fiscal year, 54 billion dollars.
Grants to local governments shrink by about half a billion dollars to 140 billion dollars.
The government expects more than 530 billion dollars in tax revenues, the largest in 27 years.
The budget plan calls for issuing new government bonds worth more than 300 billion dollars, about 6 billion dollars less than in the current fiscal year ending in March. The debt accounts for more than a third of the entire revenues in the budget plan.
