Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held the fifth meeting of the Government and Ruling Parties Council on the Formulation of the Budget at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, a report was presented by Mr. Jun Azumi, Minister of Finance, on the proposed budget allocation for the Program to Prioritize the Revival of Japan.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said, "The proposed budget allocation is intended to contribute to future economic growth of Japan. It covers a range of things, including programs related to space or the ocean as new frontier fields, as well as infrastructure development to reinforce the foundation of economic growth and assistance for Japanese companies expanding overseas. It also gives consideration to the promotion and development of Okinawa, allocating 50 billion yen in addition to the requested 27.3 billion yen budget.
Although we were expecting the scale to be about 700 billion yen at the stage of budget requests, as a result of further expenditure cuts in the process of budget formulation, we were able to generate additional funds, expand the scale to 1 trillion, and substantially reformulate the budget.
I believe that it includes measures truly necessary for revival of the Japanese economy and society.
As the budget formulation is at its final stage, I ask for one last effort from all of you."