TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's ruling bloc on Friday submitted to parliament a revised fiscal 2025 draft budget, with the minority government hoping opposition support will secure its passage.

The revision of the budget for the first time in three decades came as the government led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has struggled to win Diet approval for its spending plans for the fiscal year starting April following its election defeat last year.

The draft budget was trimmed by some 340 billion yen ($2.3 billion) from the government's original proposal, as increased expenditure will be covered by a reduction in reserve funds initially set at 1 trillion yen.

Totaling 115.2 trillion yen, the draft budget still marks a record high on an initial budget basis.

Under the plan, the government will reduce the amount of new bond issuance in the fiscal year, as its debt is more than twice the size of its economy.

The revision includes policies sought by opposition forces, including achieving free high school education and a hike in the nontaxable annual income threshold.

Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, need to obtain support from opposition forces to pass budgets and bills after losing their majority in the powerful House of Representatives last October.

Earlier this week, the ruling parties secured backing from the Japan Innovation Party for the draft budget after accepting its demand to ensure free school education and promote social security reforms.

Raising the tax-free income threshold from 1.03 million yen is a key policy for another small opposition force, the Democratic Party for the People, as part of efforts to boost disposable incomes.

In a bid to win support from the party, the ruling camp proposed to lift the threshold to up to 1.6 million yen, depending on individual income, which would reduce the government's tax revenue by around 621 billion yen.

The main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, also presented its own version of the budget, proposing changes worth around 3.8 trillion yen.

One contentious issue between the ruling bloc and the CDPJ is whether to increase the burden on patients already facing expensive medical costs, such as those with cancer.

As the left-leaning CDPJ has pushed the government to avoid raising the burden of patients, the ruling parties decided to allocate 5.5 billion yen to maintain the current system.

The revision marked the first change of a government-crafted spending plan since 1996 under then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.