Shinzo Abe's future as prime minister may depend on how well the ¥5 trillion stimulus package he unveiled Tuesday will cushion the economy from the blow of raising the sales tax to 8 percent.
The economic package was introduced along with the tax hike decision in order to protect the nascent recovery brought about by Abe's set of policies dubbed "Abenomics." The government also hopes to avoid the slowdown experienced after the consumption tax was raised by 2 percentage points in 1997 under the administration of Ryutaro Hashimoto.
The Abe team says the ¥5 trillion stimulus outlay will be more than enough to offset the negative impact from the tax bump and the economy will not lose momentum.