Japan Foreign Min. Kono Not to Get Budget for Dedicated Plane

August 30, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Foreign Ministry will not seek funds to buy a dedicated aircraft for the foreign minister, according to a draft of its fiscal 2019 budget request presented to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Taro Kono has repeatedly called for the introduction of an exclusive plane for the country's foreign minister, claiming that it is inefficient for the minister to travel on commercial flights. Since taking office in August last year, Kono has frequently made overseas trips.

Such a dedicated aircraft is expected to cost nearly 10 billion yen. In addition, maintenance and operation costs would be necessary.

Instead of the idea of introducing such a costly plane, the ministry is set to request 960 million yen to cover the costs to use chartered planes under the government's budget for the year from next April, up sharply from 70 million yen earmarked for such flights under the fiscal 2018 budget.

The ministry will seek a total of 810.2 billion yen for fiscal 2019, up 16.3 pct from the fiscal 2018 budget, according to the draft, which was submitted to a joint meeting of relevant LDP divisions.

Of the total, the ministry plans to set aside 34.5 billion yen for a series of international meetings to be held in Japan next year. It will spend 24.7 billion yen for the summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in the western prefecture of Osaka in June and 1.2 billion yen for the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD VII, in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, in August.

Some 8.5 billion yen is planned to be spent for October 2019 ceremonies related to Crown Prince Naruhito's accession to the throne on May 1 the same year.

The ministry will request 496.7 billion yen for the country's official development assistance programs, up 14.3 pct, including funds for infrastructure development under Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's free and open Indo-Pacific strategy. Jiji Press