Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received a boost Monday for pressing ahead with a planned sales-tax increase when most members of panels advising the government backed the move even as they urged stimulus to cushion the economic blow.
Most of those in seven consultative panels favored proceeding with the April increase, economy minister Akira Amari said Saturday, after the final group met. Members of the panels, set up by the government, called for "sufficient stimulus," he said.
The consultation exercise may help Abe justify raising the consumption tax to 8 percent in April from 5 percent now, the first of two increases that will ultimately double the levy to 10 percent. While the move will help shore up Japan's finances — a topic Japan is set to discuss at a Group of 20 nations meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, this week — the blow to consumption could send the economy back into contraction.