Statistical Handbook of Japan 2019

Figure 1

Revenue and Expenditure in the General Account

FY1990 95 00 05 10 15 19

Source: Composed by the author accordingly to Ministry of Finance of Japan.

In the national government finance, expenditure has continued to surpass revenue. Since fiscal 2008 in particular, the worsening economy has decreased tax revenue, contributing to an increasing gap between revenue and expenditure. From fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012, bond issues exceeded tax revenue in most years, but starting in fiscal 2013, tax revenue has exceeded borrowing on an initial budget basis.

The size of the general account budget for fiscal 2019 was 99 trillion yen, an increase of 1.7 trillion yen (1.8 percent) from the initial budget of fiscal 2018. This is equivalent to 17.6 percent of the fiscal 2019 GDP, forecasted by the government at 566 trillion yen.