Standard & Poor's will be taking a keen look at the debt reduction target announced by the government in June, when the midterm fiscal policy will be compiled, but the result of this summer's Upper House election may have a greater impact on its rating of Japanese government bonds, a director of the firm's sovereign ratings section said.
"A middle-term target is very important, but depending on the election results, the administration itself could be changed," Takahira Ogawa, a Singapore-based analyst who was visiting Tokyo, told The Japan Times recently.
"We would like to give more consideration to whether any plan or vision can be implemented," he said.