The Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) urged the government Thursday to come up with specific plans to sort out the nation's finances, association officials said.
Chairman Kakutaro Kitashiro and other corporate executives urged the government to specify how it will improve Japan's financial situation during what remains of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's term, including the extent of any potential spending cuts, they said.
During a meeting with senior Finance Ministry officials, members of the association also requested information on possible tax hikes, according to the officials.
During the meeting, Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said the Diet will probably spend more time discussing how to reconstruct Japan's finances, with the Financial System Council expected to submit a proposal to the government aimed at raising the consumption tax.
"To continue giving only an anesthetic is no good. We also have to do something that involves pain sooner or later," Tanigaki was quoted as saying. "We need to openly discuss this so the public gains a better understanding."
Bureaucrat quota cuts
A key panel to the finance minister will call for greater cuts to prefectural and municipal government employee quotas in its fiscal 2005 budget recommendations, panel sources said Wednesday.
The Fiscal System Council says the quota cuts are to reduce the central government's overestimation of prefecture expenditures.
The council estimates the state pays out 500 billion yen more than is needed in prefectural subsidies.