After enacting contentious security bills earlier this month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared that he is refocusing on the economy, with the goal of boosting gross domestic product by 20 percent to ¥600 trillion in 2020.
The figure has been met with deep skepticism. On Tuesday, the top executive of a leading business lobby called it an "outrageous" and "impossible" numerical target.
"I believe ¥600 trillion is an outrageous figure," Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, chairman of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives), told a news conference in Tokyo. The sentiment is shared by many economists and market players.