Japan FY25 Budget Totaling ¥115 Trillion Enacted Day Before Fiscal Year Begins

The Yomiuri Shimbun

19:10 JST, March 31, 2025

The fiscal 2025 budget was enacted Monday, the day before the start of the fiscal year, after it passed the House of the Representatives with the support of the ruling bloc — the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — as well as the opposition Japan Innovation Party.

The budget, totaling ¥115.1978 trillion on a general account basis, was established during fiscal 2024 under the minority government of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba with the cooperation of the JIP. The ruling bloc and the opposition party had agreed over the introduction of tuition-free high school, which the JIP had pushed for.

The budget proposal, including revisions, was voted on at the House of Councillors Budget Committee and then at a full session of the upper house earlier on Monday. After that, it was sent to the lower house.

A budget proposal sent from the lower house last month was revised at the upper house to reflect the postponement of the review of a high-cost medical expense benefit program. After these changes were approved, the revised budget proposal was returned to the lower house under the provision of the Diet Law. This is the first time under the Constitution that a budget proposal revised at the upper house was sent back to the lower house and the lower house voted for the budget to be established.

At a session of the upper house Budget Committee on Monday morning, the LDP, Komeito and the JIP voted for the budget proposal sent from the lower house. The opposition parties Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Democratic Party for the People, the Japanese Communist Party and Reiwa Shinsengumi voted against the budget. However, the revisions to the budget proposal were approved unanimously at the committee, and then the revised budget proposal passed through the upper house.

The budget proposal first passed the lower house and was sent to the upper house on March 4, after it was revised to include such matters as tuition-free high school, which was agreed upon by the ruling parties and the JIP. It was also changed to raise the income threshold for the imposition of income tax from the current ¥1.03 million to ¥1.6 million.

Then on March 7, the prime minister expressed his intention to postpone the review of the high-cost medical expense benefit program that sets a limit on patients’ out-of-pocket payments, and the ruling parties submitted revisions to the budget proposal to the upper house.

This is the first time in 29 years that an initial budget proposal has been revised in the Diet since 1996.