The government should swiftly implement drastic tax cuts to stimulate the nation's sluggish economy, leaders of the nation's big businesses and labor unions agreed Tuesday.

In a meeting between the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), the leaders of the two organizations expressed serious concern over the state of the economy and urged the government to implement economic measures, including drastic income and corporate tax cuts as well as deregulation, according to Keidanren officials.

However, the two organizations seem to have different priorities in implementing economic measures. While Rengo Chairman Etsuya Washio reportedly called for income tax cuts worth 2 trillion yen and other tax cuts worth 3 trillion yen, Keidanren Chairman Shoichiro Toyoda said corporate tax cuts should come first.

After the corporate tax cuts, the government should implement income tax cuts, the Keidanren officials quoted Toyoda as saying. Rengo also said the current extremely low interest rates should be revised in the near future.

Commenting on the crisis surrounding the nation's financial institutions, the two organizations agreed that it is necessary to protect depositors and that they will support the government's move to inject public money for that purpose.