A key panel headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday unveiled a sweeping reform program aimed at fixing the bad debt-crippled economy in two to three years.
In the interim, the painful reforms could hurt economic growth.
The program, mapped out by the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, defines the coming two to three years "as a period to intensively promote reform" and resolve the problem of nonperforming loans held by Japanese banks.