Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Wednesday to cut the corporate tax rate next fiscal year beyond current targets, paving the way for bringing it below 30 percent to boost investment and wages.

Abe told a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy that the government will also find ways to help companies increase pay and minimum wages, as private-sector members of the panel have called for.

"As for corporate tax reform, we will certainly add more deductions to the tax reduction" in fiscal 2016, paving the way for reducing the effective corporate tax rate below 30 percent, Abe said.