Japan to Promote Measures to Increase Disaster Resilience

November 12, 2018

Tokyo--The Japanese government decided on Monday to promote emergency measures to increase the country's resilience to natural disasters, in the wake of a succession of major disasters including massive flooding and powerful earthquakes earlier this year.

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy also discussed an increase in minimum wages and other measures to sustain upward economic momentum following a consumption tax hike to 10 pct scheduled for October 2019.

"Making our homeland stronger is an urgent task, in order to secure the Japanese economy's foundations, as well as to ensure peace of mind and safety for the people," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the panel meeting.

On disaster prevention measures that the government is set to draw up later this month, panel members from the private sector called on the government not to group together possible public works, including infrastructure projects, before the tax hike but also consider the economic situation after the tax hike.

The private-sector side proposed expanding a subsidy program to encourage companies to raise minimum wages and improve the treatment of part-time employees, with the aim of offsetting the tax hike's impact on consumption.

The private members also urged the government to work out measures to prevent a reoccurrence of the prolonged consumption slump that followed the consumption tax rise from 5 pct to the current 8 pct in April 2014. Jiji Press