 Tokyo uses more for development projects than welfare services Under Governor Ishihara Shintaro, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has continuously cut welfare services on the grounds of financial crisis, making Tokyo's welfare budget much less than that for large public works projects. Tokyo's yearly budget is about six trillion yen in the general account alone. Governor Ishihara in the past four years reduced welfare-related expenditures by 85.6 billion yen to 601.1 billion yen while increasing development-related expenditures to 679.6 billion yen. In addition, the Ishihara government uses about one trillion yen a year for investment-type spending, which is twice as much as that during the bubble years. The number of community-oriented large public works projects, including construction of public housing complexes, has decreased drastically. Instead, construction of new highways as well as waterfront development has come into prominence. It is not welfare-related expenditures that cause Tokyo to hold the debt of 6.9 trillion yen. It is these wasteful public works projects. The Japanese Communist Party members group of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly proposes that the use of Tokyo's budget should be shifted to livelihood-oriented uses so that many public services in relation to welfare, medical care, and education can be put into practice along with promoting Tokyo's fiscal recovery. (end) |