Yielding to strong opposition from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, the government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the DPJ president, approved a social security and tax reform plan Thursday that will enforce a 10 percent consumption tax "by the mid-2010s," instead of its initial target of fiscal 2015.
The deal agreed on by Kan's government and his DPJ also stipulates that the sales tax will only be hiked, presumably in stages, if the economy improves.
Despite the compromise, Kan hailed the agreement.