TOKYO, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - Japan's new government has found 2.9 trillion yen ($32 billion) in wasteful spending in the 2009 supplementary budget and will redirect the funds to other projects, the Cabinet office said on Friday.
The savings amount to almost 20% of the extra budget expenditure approved by the previous government, which was defeated in historic elections at the end of August.
"We managed to come close to the goal of 3 trillion yen. In a sense, this marks the beginning of a new policy," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said.
Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan won 308 seats in the 480-seat lower house of parliament in the August 30 vote, while the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which had been in power for more than 50 years, secured only 119.
It campaigned on a promise of new social programs, subsidies and grants, which will require about 7 trillion yen ($77 billion) in the next financial year, beginning on April 1, 2010. The DPJ pledged to find the funds without increasing public debt by cutting unnecessary spending.
