TOKYO—Japan’s government ministries have made budget requests totaling $784 billion for the next fiscal year—their second-largest total to date, driven largely by the defense ministry’s request for a rise in spending to record levels.
The combined total spending requests made for next year’s budget came to 110.05 trillion yen, the Finance Ministry said on Monday, not far off requests for this financial year that came in at 111.7 trillion yen.
This fiscal year’s initial budget has ended up being trimmed to 107 trillion yen, still a record amount.
The budget may be inflated further as some items were requested without an amount being specified in areas such as defense and decarbonization….