Japan eyes public spending to boost post-Olympics economy

June 18, 2019

Tokyo--The Japanese government and the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling coalition plan to boost public investment to counter a potential slowdown of the economy after the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, informed sources said Tuesday.

The plan is expected to be a focal point in deliberations over the government budget for fiscal 2020, slated to go into full swing from this summer.

At a meeting of LDP members on Tuesday, the government proposed including the plan in an item on building disaster-resistant infrastructure in the government's draft economic and fiscal policy guidelines to be hammered out soon.

The proposal calls for the sentence that the government "will steadily promote such efforts to ensure economic growth after the Olympics," according to the sources.

The proposal, which was supported by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Policy Division of the LDP, was broadly accepted at the meeting.

The government also proposed adding a clause on "considering regional differences" concerning the minimum wage, an expected point of contention.

The government and ruling coalition plan to discuss the draft guidelines further, aiming for approval at a cabinet meeting this week. Jiji Press