The Cabinet on Tuesday adopted a revised policy to rehabilitate the budget, saddled with the world's biggest debt burden. It also accepted a strategy to boost economic growth, but economists and an opposition leader warned that snowballing social security costs need further belt-tightening.
The fiscal reform plan, titled "Basic policies for economic and fiscal management and reform," aims to achieve the goal of turning Japan's primary budget balance into a surplus by fiscal 2020, betting that robust economic growth will boost tax revenues amid the swelling social security costs for the nation's fast-aging population.
The revamped Japan Revitalization Strategy, as the growth strategy is called, aims to boost business investment with a focus on such fields as information technology and human resources.