The nascent economic recovery is strong enough to weather an increase in the consumption tax to repair the government's finances, according to former senior Finance Ministry official Eisuke Sakakibara.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" prescription of fiscal and monetary stimulus has given the government the leeway to tackle the growing debt burden, said Sakakibara, who as recently as a year ago said the tax could snuff out an economic recovery.
"Abenomics will likely help Japan achieve 2 percent or better growth both this year and next," Sakakibara, known as "Mr. Yen" for his efforts to influence exchange rates in the late 1990s, said in an interview Tuesday in Tokyo. "Japan should raise the consumption tax as prescribed by the law."