The government has pledged to simultaneously achieve fiscal rehabilitation and economic growth in a draft of its longer-term economic and fiscal policy blueprint, but gave no details on how to pave the way for sound public finance.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration promised in the Thursday draft to halve the percentage of the primary balance deficit to the country's gross domestic product by fiscal 2015 from the level in fiscal 2010 and turn the balance into a surplus by fiscal 2020.
It also committed to reducing the percentage of Japan's public debt to GDP from fiscal 2021 "in a stable manner," to prevent growing concerns over the nation's fiscal health from rattling the sovereign debt market and prompting a spike in long-term interest rates.