Tokyo, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)–Road-related budgets for two municipalities in the eastern Japan prefecture of Tochigi, whose mayors did not back agriculture minister Kazuo Yana in the House of Representatives election in February, have been slashed by as much as around 54 pct from the previous fiscal year, it was learned Tuesday. According to the land ministry, government subsidies for road development decreased 26.2 pct for the city of Nasukarasuyama and 54.1 pct for the town of Nakagawa. The ministry denied Yana’s influence or pressure behind the subsidy cuts. Some other municipalities also saw cuts of 50 pct or more, according to the ministry. However, the ministry revealed that Hajime Sasaki, then state minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, and Masayoshi Kuroda, then head of the land minister’s secretariat, received inquiries from Yana in February about the government’s fiscal 2026 budget. After the budget was enacted in April, Sasaki briefed Yana’s staff on subsidy allocations to the two municipalities. Before assuming his current cabinet post in September, Yana told a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in May that he had substantially cut road budgets for the two municipalities. After his remarks came to light, Yana retracted them and apologized on Monday. The two municipalities then issued statements criticizing the minister for causing great anxiety among local residents and urging him to fulfill his accountability in order to dispel this anxiety. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
