
TOKYO -- Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will propose a national budget for fiscal 2021 set to top 105 trillion yen ($994 billion) that places digitization of government services front and center.
Digitization has emerged as a pressing issue after Japan's failure to distribute stimulus payouts to households in a timely manner this spring. Outdated systems also have hampered the collection of coronavirus-related data. That performance caused Japan to drop in the United Nations' e-government development ranking to 14th place for this year.