30 mil. yen likely stolen from bank using spy cameras
December 24, 2005A total of 30 million yen appears to have been stolen from 41 savings accounts at Saitamaken Shinkin Bank, likely using depositors' information captured by mini spy cameras secretly installed at automated teller machines, bank officials said Saturday. If confirmed, the case would mark the first example of cash being stolen using such cameras, following a series of discoveries of spy cameras installed at bank ATMs in a wide area in Japan earlier this year.
Japan's Cabinet OKs 79.69 tril. yen budget for FY 2006
December 24, 2005The Cabinet on Saturday approved a 79,686.02 billion yen national budget for fiscal 2006, down 3.0 percent from the initial budget for the current fiscal year and moving below 80 trillion yen for the first time in eight years. Spending cuts across a broad area of policies and a projected growth in tax revenues for the year beginning next April will allow the government to limit the issuance of new government bonds to 29,973.00 billion yen, down 12.8 percent, falling below 30 trillion yen for the first time in five years.
Japan to boost missile defense, cut overall defense budget by 0.9%
December 24, 2005The Cabinet on Saturday approved the government's plan to increase outlays on missile defense in fiscal 2006 to almost 140 billion yen while cutting the overall defense budget by 0.9 percent to 4,813.9 billion yen. The initial national defense budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1 is 42.4 billion yen lower than the current fiscal year, marking the fourth straight year of cuts in defense outlays.
Japan to cut ODA budget by 3.4% for 7th straight year
December 24, 2005Japan will cut its foreign aid by 3.4 percent in fiscal 2006 for the seventh straight yearly decrease but secure new funding to combat terrorism and increase its low-interest yen loans for Iraq's reconstruction, according to the state budget approved Saturday by the Cabinet. The government allocated 759.7 billion yen ($6.5 billion) for official development assistance in the final budget plan for the next fiscal year starting April 1, down from 786.2 billion yen in ODA expenditures in the budget for the current fiscal year.
Gov't to slash investment spending by 12.5% in FY 2006
December 24, 2005The Cabinet approved Saturday a 12.5 percent cut in the government's fiscal investment and loan program in fiscal 2006, marking the seventh straight yearly contraction. The outlays under the FILP, or ''zaito'' in Japanese, for the new fiscal year, which starts April 1, totals 15,004.6 billion yen, down from 17,151.8 billion yen under the initial fiscal 2005 plan.