Ministry of Finance (Japan)

The main building of the Treasury Department in the Kasumigaseki government district in Chiyoda , Tokyo .

The Japanese Ministry of Finance ( Japanese 財務省 , zaimu-shō , English Ministry of Finance , MOF) is a ministry of the central government . Today it is responsible for budget planning, the tax system and customs duties, the administration of national debts and bonds and the minting of coins.

Tarō Asō has been Minister of Finance since December 2012 .

history

From its establishment after the Meiji Restoration to the restructuring of the central government in 2001, the Ministry of Finance was called ōkura-shō ( 大蔵省 ). This designation goes back to a position in the 8th century from the Ritsuryō system.

In the reconstruction of Japan and in the economic boom in the post-war period, the Ministry of Finance played a central role alongside MITI , which coordinated the development of industry. At that time the Ōkura-shō also had the supervision of the banking system (since 1998 with the authority for the financial system ) and among other things over the tanshi-gaisha significant influence on the monetary policy and the enormous currency reserves (since 1998 bundled with the Bank of Japan ).

Until the founding of the independent Nippon Sembai Kōsha ( 日本専売公社 , "Japanese public monopoly"; English Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corp. ) in 1949, the forerunner of Nihon Tabako Sangyō (English Japan Tobacco ), the ministry was also responsible for the state Tobacco, salt and camphor monopoly responsible.

Budget and national debt

Development of national debt since 1970 in trillion yen.

In the fiscal year 2006 budget, the Treasury Department's plan, which includes debt servicing, was over 20.5 trillion yen , making it the largest single plan .

The growth of Japan's enormous national debt - estimated 181% of gross domestic product in fiscal year 2008 , of which 148% in bonds - continues: In 2008, 30.5% (25 trillion yen) of government spending was to be covered by new bonds. While tax revenues have not yet reached the level of the bubble economy (FY 1990: 60.1 trillion yen; FY 2008: 53.6 trillion yen), expenditure has continued to rise (FY 1990: 69.3 trillion yen; Fy 2008: 83.1 trillion yen). The total amount of outstanding bonds is approximately 550 trillion yen (around 3.3 trillion euros). At the same time, the interest burden, which had tended to fall during the zero interest rate policy in the 1990s, has been increasing again since 2005. In the fiscal years 2009, 2010 and 2011, during the Asō, Hatoyama and Kan cabinets - that is, governments of both major parties - parliament decided on budgets with new record spending.

The Japanese government bonds have a rating of AA- according to S&P (devaluation of AA in January 2011) and according to Moody's a rating of Aa3 (devaluation of Aa2 in August 2011).