BUDGETS AND THE BUDGETARY PROCESS IN JAPAN

Government fiscal activity can be reported through the budget to the n ation. Governments perform a number of functions. Public expenditures and taxes are used to stabilize the economy; that is, when private dem and is weak, expenditures may be increased or taxes adjusted downward or both. Even if stabilization goals are satisfied, the government wou ld have to fulfill other roles, such as resource allocation and income distribution in the economy. These roles represent themselves in the provision of certain public goods and services to society at large or to specific individuals separately. Given the multiple roles the publi c sector performs in the economy, how can we judge the allocation or a ssignment of these roles in a framework of multi-level government? Als o, how can we understand the actual performance of government in the p ast and present? All of these can be conveyed via the budgets and the budgetary process. Each country has historically developed its own uni que system of budget. It is difficult to look for any resemblance from one country's budget to another. The budget system serves many functi ons to execute those roles mentioned above. Main tasks of the budgets are to control government fiscal activities, to review previous action s and to identify future government programs. In order to clarify thes e roles and functions assigned to the government, we must explore care fully an entire system of budgets and in turn the fiscal structure in the public sector. This paper starts with an outline of Japan's budget ary system with special reference to alternative concepts and uses und er the present system. Then it describes the budgetary process and pro cedures which is sometimes called ''budget cycles''.