The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday set out a vision of Japan being the world's only advanced economy that is shrinking in 2017 due to the impact of a planned consumption tax hike.
The fund also cut its global growth projection for the current year, citing increased uncertainty.
The nation's economy is expected to contract a real 0.1 percent in terms of gross domestic product in 2017, down 0.4 percentage point from an earlier estimate released in January, the Washington-based lender said in the semiannual World Economic Outlook report.