At the end of last year it was announced that the Agency for Cultural Affairs would be allocated 102 billion yen for fiscal 2010 – the highest annual budget it has ever received. The 25 December announcement was made by Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister, Tatsuo Kawabata, and followed close on the heels of the announcement that the national budget for 2010 would be a record-breaking 92.3 trillion yen