The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a ¥335 billion draft budget for Okinawa for fiscal 2016 on Dec. 24th. That is a little over two percent below the budgetary request of ¥342.9 billion by the Okinawa Prefectural Government.

Considering the impact of the upcoming Ginowan City Mayoral race next month, the Prefectural Assembly election and the Upper House election, the national government is believed to have increased expenditures earmarked for Okinawa by 0.3 % or one billion yen in fiscal 2015. One billion yen was recently added to measures against child poverty.

In addition, a budget of ¥120 million was earmarked for an economic study of the northern part of the island with an eye on advancing the plans for the USJ theme park in Motobu. The Naha Airport second runway project got ¥33 billion and the budget related to the OIST was pegged at ¥16.7 billion.

The subsidy for Okinawa development and promotion, which is a lump sum, no-strings-attached state subsidy, decreased by ¥500 million from the previous year to ¥161.3 billion.

Regarding the budget related to the construction of the MCAS Futenma replacement facility in Henoko, the Ministry of Defense booked ¥173.557 billion, which is a small increase of 4.1 % or ¥6.9 billion from fiscal 2015.

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