JAPANESE BUDGET

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 128, 23 February 1921, Page 8

JAPANESE BUDGET

AN INCREASE OF 227,000,000 YEN

ENORMOUS SUM FOR ARMY AND NAVY

After considerable pruning of various Departmental estimates, the Japanese Budget for 1921-1922 has been evolved by the Cabinet, the original Estimates having been reduced from 1,800,000,000 yen to 1,562,000,000 yen, and even with this reduction it represents an increase of 227,000,000 yen from the present Budget (writes the New York “Evening Post’s” Tokio correspondent on December 3).

Considering that before the war the Budget ran to about 570,000,000 yen, and general business depression, which is now holding the entire Empire in its grip, the situation seems serious, for in spite of hopeful pronouncements by the Government of forthcoming revenue, it is difficult to see where it is going to come from.

In consonance with Japan’s policy of recent years, the lion's share of the Estimates, almost one-half of the total, or 738,281,000 yen, goes to the Army and the Navy, the latter getting the bigger part thereof, namely 493,281,000 yen, of which it will spend 144,000,000 yen on new construction. Even at that the proviso is made that in case advances in prices make this estimate appear too small, additional advances will be called for. »

The enormous sums which Japan thus plans to spend for military nnd naval purposes appear particularly largo when they are compared with the sums which she will spend on other functions of the Government. Thus the Department of Education gets only 56,000,000 yen, and this in spite of the fact that the educational institutions of the empire are notoriously inadequate, the teachers wretchedly underpaid, and the equipment leaves much to be desired.

The Foreign. Office has also had to suffer in order to provide the militarists with the funds which they demand. The estimate for its Bureau of Intelligence was cut from 4,500,000 yen to 1,700.000 yen, and its estimates on the whole have been so badly reduced that it will be impossible for Japan to establish legations in several countries where it had been planned to establish such, although the Army will have representatives of its own in these countries. Against the appropriations referred to the Government expects to have revenue amounting to about 1,397,000,000 yen, a deficit of 163,000,000 yen, which will apparently be made good by drawing on the existing surplus of 228,000.000 yen. Even in making its estimate of expected revenue, the Government figures on a 'natural increase” of 30,000,000 yen, but in view of the fact that last year the Empire was at the height of its prosperity, while this year it has entered into a period of extreme depression, which seems likely to continue during the coming fiscal period, it seems as if the expectations of the Cabinet are over-san-guine. The Government also figures on a 3,500,000 yen profit from its steel works at Edamitsu, but business men believe that no iron or steel enterprise in Japan' can bo profitable in the near future. The announcement of the Budget is a disappointment to the public. This finds expression in the Press, which is almost unanimous in criticising tlm jo‘tion of the Cabinet. The “Tokyo Asahi,” which is a Conservative daily, says that “the Government has made many makeshifts to make both ends meet, and the new Budget is the worst over drawn by a Seiyukai (Government party) Cabinet.”