After election, gov’t to face greater pressure for spending

October 23, 2017

TOKYO- Emboldened by the victory of his ruling coalition in Sunday's general election, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to boost government spending to speed up his Abenomics deflation-fighting economic policy mix.

The Abe government is expected to draw up a 2-trillion-yen policy package by the year's end to flesh out his project to "revolutionize" human resources development, officials said.

The project features his proposal for using more of the revenue from the planned consumption tax increase from 8 percent to 10 percenbt in October 2019 to provide free education as part of an effort to create a social security system that pays heed to all generation by reforming the current disproportionate emphasis on the elderly.

"We'll implement it (the project) steadily as we included it in our promises," Abe said on a television program, referring to his Liberal Democratic Party's campaign pledges.

Appearing on another TV program, Abe said his government will carry out the consumption tax hike as planned unless Japan experiences an event similar in scale to the economic and financial crisis that followed the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008. Jiji Press