{"id":175665,"date":"2026-01-23T11:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=175665&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2026-01-23T11:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T02:07:57","slug":"fukuoka-mayor-warns-national-budget-delay","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/fukuoka-mayor-warns-national-budget-delay\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukuoka Mayor Warns National Budget Delay Could Affect Local Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima said a delay in passing the national budget could affect municipally run projects that rely on central government subsidies. Speaking at a regular press conference on January 21, Takashima responded to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi\u2019s announcement that the House of Representatives would be dissolved at the start of the ordinary Diet session. While acknowledging that dissolving the lower house is the prime minister\u2019s prerogative, Takashima said he was surprised by the timing. He warned that many local government projects depend on national funding and that if the budget is delayed, municipalities may be unable to execute planned spending even if their own budgets are approved. This could affect projects scheduled to begin in April. Takashima also said snap elections impose heavy administrative burdens and suggested reforms such as digitizing election procedures and introducing electronic voting to reduce costs and labor. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Source<\/strong>: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.web.nhk\/newsweb\/na\/nb-5010031681\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NHK News<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \/ <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/lQ83XMk_m24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fukuoka Channel by Fukuoka City<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-175666\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-mayor-takashima-press-conference-2_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1400%2C717&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"717\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-mayor-takashima-press-conference-2_2026_cl.jpg?w=1400&amp;ssl=1 1400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-mayor-takashima-press-conference-2_2026_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C154&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-mayor-takashima-press-conference-2_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C524&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/fnn_fukuoka-mayor-takashima-press-conference-2_2026_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C393&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>Photo: Fukuoka Channel by Fukuoka City<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay informed with the latest Fukuoka &amp; Kyushu news and events in English. Sign up for our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free weekly newsletter <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">today and never miss a beat. Opt out anytime, your privacy is our priority. Get the inside scoop with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this <\/span><b>form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima said a delay in passing the national budget could affect municipally run projects that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30292,"featured_media":175666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-175665","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-fukuoka-city","news-category-politics","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/175665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}