New Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday reiterated his intention to work toward restoring Japan's fiscal balance, stressing in his inaugural remarks that the economy's plunge in recent years was the result of steering clear of tax hikes and relying too much on government bonds.
Kan, who served as finance minister and deputy prime minister in the previous administration, has indicated in the past the need to raise the consumption tax to restore the nation's fiscal coffers.
The growing deficit is "rooted in a structural cause," Kan said in his first news conference, adding that lack of political leadership in the past two decades triggered the downward spiral.