News



THE CITY OF OSAKA RELEASES THE BUDGET FOR THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR
3/10/2010

The 2010 Osaka City budget was announced just last month. In Japan, the fiscal year begins in April, and this newly announced budget will set the course for City of Osaka activities for the coming year.

Osaka has the largest of all Japanese City government budget and next year’s general account budget of U.S.$19 billion will see a 4% increase over the fiscal year 2009. (For your reference, this part of the budget is about twice that of Chicago and three times that of the City and County of San Francisco.) It is approximately $43 billion dollars in total when combined with the special account budget, which includes services such as transportation and water.

The increase in the budget unfortunately was not due to an improvement in the economy, but to increased need for welfare aid funding. Tax revenue continues to decline, and cutting back spending remains the biggest challenge for the City of Osaka. The most pronounced such effort is in the cut back of the number of City employees. In the 5 years ending with the fiscal year 2010, 8,400 positions will have been eliminated, with 800 more positions eliminated in the coming year to reach the eventual goal of a leaner city operation 39,000 people strong.

In this year’s budgetary process, the slogans “the reinvigoration of local power” and “investment for the future” are used as driving messages. Under the slogan “investment for the future,” three target areas are covered: 1) Growing industries; 2) attractive city building and 3) human capital. For the purposes of this article, I would like to explain more about the target area of “growing industries.”

The City of Osaka has two main strategic districts. First is the Osaka port area, that will soon be home to the largest solar power generation facility in Japan (total maximum capacity of 28 MW.) This project will further strengthen and advance Osaka’s already world-class solar and lithium ion battery cluster, together with related projects such as electric vehicle charging stations and car sharing. Furthermore, on a landfill island called Yumeshima in Osaka Bay, approximately 124 acres are being allocated for use by green tech and clean energy projects and companies, with consideration being given for special zoning practices.


The second area is the Osaka Station North Redevelopment District. This central district is adjacent to Osaka Station which is used daily by 2.5 million people. As part of the redevelopment project, there are plans in place that would enhance the growth of Osaka’s robotics cluster within the healthcare industry. Construction will begin this March, and the various pilot project plans aimed for the 2012 opening are also underway. For the second phase development, plans are being considered for areas to be allocated specifically for green technology.

Although we have chosen to only focus on a particular aspect of the use of the City of Osaka budget, please contact us and let us know if you have other areas of interest concerning the budget.




> Back to Index