Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to wait until after this summer's Upper House election before deciding whether to go ahead with the second stage of a consumption tax hike as scheduled, sources close to Abe have said.
A second-stage 2 percentage point hike, to 10 percent, is planned for April next year.
This timeline has been thrown into doubt by continued sluggish personal consumption, although a slight expansion in the January to March quarter has spurred a degree of optimism about the economy.