Meteorological Agency's FY2004 Environment Budget Request Totals 208 Million Yen

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has unveiled details of its budget request to the Finance Ministry for fiscal 2004, which starts in April. The amount requested from the general budget is 70,203 million yen (about U.S.$633 million), up about 13 percent from the previous year. The three featured areas in the budget are as follows:

1. Strengthening of capacity to monitor and forecast typhoons and heavy rains
2. Enhancement of earthquake-related measures
3. Upgrading of measures to prevent climate change and protect the global environment

As for the climate change and global environment measures, a total of 208 million yen (about U.S.$1.84 million) is requested, increased from 128 million yen (about U.S.$1.15 million) in fiscal 2003. The breakdown is as follows:

(1) Development of a system to analyze the urban heat island effect;
(2) Establishment of a database for simulating the global climate system;
(3) Providing predictions of harmful ultraviolet light conditions; and
(4) Research on climate change prediction.

The budget for research on climate change prediction was first approved in fiscal 2003. Based on the results of modeling predictions from this research, the JMA will work to detect global warming, identify its causes, and analyze climate change around Japan.



Posted: 2004/01/14 08:24:58 PM
Japanese version