Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Wednesday that the government should reduce Japan's ratio of public works spending to gross domestic product to between 1 percent and 2 percent in the next 10 years to match the level of such spending in western countries.
"Japan should bring the ratio to the level of the United States or European countries over the next decade or so," Shiokawa told the House of Representatives Financial Affairs Committee.
Public works spending in Japan accounts for 6.2 percent of GDP. In other countries, however, that ratio has recently been as much as 78 percent lower.