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apan has said it remains committed to taking part in an estimated US$8 trillion in ASEAN Connectivity projects despite its own post-earthquake recovery and domestic economic struggles.

“We have two issues here. One is to recover from the devastation caused by the earthquake and the other is to make the Japanese economy healthier and more sound,” Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry assistant press secretary Masaru Sato told a limited number of Indonesian journalists on Friday evening.

“This is because Japanese debt is twice as much as Japanese GDP [gross domestic product].”

A 9.0 magnitude earthquake rattled Japan in March, damaging or completely destroying 800,000 homes. The earthquake triggered a tsunami that engulfed Japan’s northeast and wiped out entire towns, where 20,000 people died or went missing, while displacing 400,000 others.

Japan’s national debt is set to exceed ¥1,000 trillion (US$12.8 trillion) by the end of the fiscal year next March, with debt rising faster than the Finance Ministry had previously forecast because of spending tied to aid and rebuilding efforts related to the earthquake and tsunami recovery, according to a Nov. 7 report in Nikkei newspaper, as quoted by marketwatch.com news portal.

“We have to continue to contribute to the world by providing our expertise and assistance. Prime Minister [Yoshihiko] Noda has provided ¥2 trillion [$26 billion] despite our challenges,” said Sato.

He said the first thing the Japanese government planned to do was increase consumption tax, akin to value-added tax, from 5 percent to 10 percent.

The government planned to submit a bill regulating a consumption tax increase by the end of the fiscal year, he said.

“We have to cut unnecessary expenditures and we also have to think about how to grow our economy. If this is not sufficient, we have to think about increasing revenue,” Sato said.

Ministry press secretary Yutaka Yokoi said the Japanese government intended to cut civil servant salaries by 10 percent.

ASEAN declared the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity in Hanoi last year, which is a set of connectivity programs that will enhance trade, investment, tourism, infrastructure, people-to-people exchanges and development among member countries – the main goals of the people-oriented ASEAN Community targeted to be in place by 2015.

ASEAN Connectivity projects include development of railways, toll roads, seaports, airports, power plants and information and communication technology systems.

For the ASEAN Connectivity projects, Japan is set to conduct a feasibility study on an ASEAN Ro-Ro (roll-on/roll-off) and short-sea shipping that will connect eastern Indonesia and the southern Philippines.

China has expressed interest in helping build the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link, which would span some 5,000 kilometers from Singapore to the southern Chinese city of Kunming. The project, estimated to cost $15 billion, is expected to be ready by 2015.

The United States and Russia have also expressed interest in taking part in ASEAN Connectivity projects, but as of yet have not mentioned any specific projects.

Indonesia and Malaysia are working on the $150 million West Kalimantan-Sarawak interconnection project consisting of high-voltage 275 kilovolt (kV) alternative current (AC) interconnections and the $490-million Melaka-Pekanbaru interconnection hydropower plant project, which would involve 600 MW high-voltage direct current.

With 32,000 islands, ASEAN spans over 4 million square kilometers inhabited by about 600 million people. The region’s GDP per capita varies from $800 to $49,000.

—Mustaqim Adamrah