일본 재정개혁 사례의 시사점

Abstract

As of 2012, Korea’s deficit-debts amount to 149.2 trillion won in general accounts, and it has driven rising national debts for 2008-2012 with its average annual growth of 24.1 percent. Such annual average growth is higher than that of Japan 18.9 percent for 1995-1999 which secured financial resources through the issuance of deficit-debts after its bubble burst and whose ratio of national debt to GDP stands at 219.1 percent in 2012, the lowest level among major developed countries. Since 2000, Japan has spearheaded fiscal reforms focusing on spending efficiency through expenditure restructuring. Starting from the Koizumi cabinet inaugurated in 2001, such reform streak continued even after the regime change into the Democratic Party in 2009. The Koizumi cabinet undertaken economic and fiscal operation in consideration of fiscal sustainability, built the PDCA cycle for execution of budget efficiency, and implemented reform in special accounts. The new regime led by the Democratic Party improved transparency in the process of budget formulation by following the above reform actions, and it acquired stable funding sources for social security expenditures by passing the bill concerning consumption tax increases. Fiscal reforms led by the Koizumi cabinet and then the Democratic Party resulted in expenditure reduction worth 125.3 trillion yen for 2004-2012, which exceeded the Koizumi cabinet’s targeted goal of expenditure adjustment. But, the ratio of expenditure reduction in net budget remained highly restricted at 3.7-12.4 percent, and this illustrated the limitations that it failed to attain fiscal discipline pursued by the Koizumi cabinet and the Democratic Party. Japan’s fiscal conditions and fiscal reform cases present implications for us as follows: To reflect outcomes of account settlement in the process of budget formulation, we should prepare institutional tools and boost transparency in the process of budget formulation. We need to conduct the merger and abolition of special accounts to enhance fiscal transparency, harness surplus resources of special accounts for other accounts or funds for efficient use of national finance, and give priority to acquisition of financial resources through tax revenue expansion with the minimum issuance of deficit-debts.