Japan Launches DOGE-Like Initiative To Cut Government Waste

Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times,

Japan’s finance minister on Nov. 25 unveiled a plan to cut wasteful government spending, drawing parallels to the United States’ Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama arrives at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo, on Oct. 21, 2025. Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama launched the “Office for Administrative Reform and Promotion of Efficiency,” which she said will work with the finance and internal affairs ministries to review measures such as government subsidies and special tax treatments for companies, according to The Japan Times.

“The public requires the government to show a constant commitment to maintain fiscal sustainability. It is crucial that this commitment is always present in Kasumigaseki and Nagatacho,” Katayama said during a press conference, referring, respectively, to Japan’s government district and where its parliament—the Diet—is located.

Katayama sought to distinguish Japan’s office for reform from the U.S.’s efficiency agency, saying, “Unlike DOGE, we’re not aiming to overhaul government organizations,” but rather on reviewing how taxpayers’ money is spent.

“To maintain trust in the sustainability of Japan’s finances, it’s very important to show the public how we are always looking into how we spend,” she said.

DOGE’s $214 Billion in Savings

U.S. President Donald Trump established DOGE in January as a task force designed to root out fraud, waste, and abuse from the federal government. It is due to expire on July 4, 2026.

In its latest contracts update from Nov. 23, DOGE wrote in a post on X that Federal government agencies terminated and reduced 78 “wasteful” contracts over the previous nine days, with a ceiling value of $1.9 billion, generating $335 million in savings.

Among the terminated contracts was a $4.3 million IT services contract for “Inflation Reduction Act transformation project management support” at the IRS, a $661,000 Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) IT services contract for “social media monitoring platform subscription,” and a $191,000 U.S. Agency for Global Media contract for “broadcast operations and maintenance in Ethiopia, Africa.”

The HHS ranked at the top of agencies with the most savings under DOGE, followed by the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Small Business Administration, according to DOGE’s Agency Efficiency Leaderboard.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk shakes hands with President Donald Trump as they speak to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 30, 2025.  Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

According to the DOGE website, the initiative has generated total savings of $214 billion as of Oct. 4, which amounts to more than $1,329 per taxpayer.

The savings were achieved through measures such as asset sales, interest savings, workforce reductions, regulatory savings, deletion of fraud and improper payments, and cancellation or renegotiation of contracts/leases, according to the website.

Musk’s Departure

DOGE was headed by Elon Musk until he left the department earlier this year when his 130-day tenure as a special government employee expired.

Musk and Trump appeared in the Oval Office on May 30 to answer questions before his departure, during which the president credited the tech entrepreneur with “a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington.”

After accepting a ceremonial key from the president, Musk said: “I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job. They’re going to continue to be doing an incredible job.”

Trump praised Musk’s work, saying he led the “most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations.”