Budget requests for Science and Technology (S&T) programs in Japanese Fiscal Year (JFY) 2008 (April 2008–March 2009) have been released by the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP). The total amount requested is ¥4,033.2 billion ($35.1 billion), a 14.9% increase from the JFY 2007 budget of ¥3,511.3 billion. The budget request from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology makes up ¥2648.6 billion, or 65.8% of the total S&T budget request. If granted in full, this would represent an increase of 14.6% over JFY 2007. S&T budget requests from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) total ¥571.4 billion, a 13.5% increase. New projects from METI include an ¥11.4 billion effort to stimulate innovation on the local level. Specific projects will be ranked for priority by the CSTP in November and final decisions on program funding will be made in December.

Source: National Science Foundation Tokyo Regional Office