ANALYSIS: Japan’s prime minister plans to invest more in people, start-ups, technology and green energy to revive the world’s third-largest economy.
Japan’s cabinet this week approved Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s new economic and fiscal policy package brandedHowever, the reception for his blueprint for reviving Japan’s post-pandemic economy has been lacklustre.
There was nothing specific in the plan, for example, to tackle one of the biggest problems facing Japanese workers – stagnant wages – despite earlier hopes that companies would receive tax or other incentives to increase workers’ pay. “It seems the government is placing more emphasis on economic growth rather than more equitable wealth distribution,” Nomura Research Institute economist Kiuchi Takahide told Japan’s state broadcaster NHK.Key areas for Australia in Kishida’s blueprint include plans to double Japan’s defence spending to 2 per cent of its GDP. This is critical given the pivotal role the country will play in the region as Canberra increasingly gets pulled into security tensions with China.