The government plans to have steps in place to protect the economy if it decides to complete the doubling of the consumption tax to 10 percent in October 2015, reappointed economy minister Akira Amari said Friday.
"We won't raise the tax without any countermeasures," Amari, a long-time ally of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said in a group interview with the media.
Amari didn't elaborate but suggested more fiscal spending was being prepared to prop up the economy as the government did in April, when the first stage of the tax hike increased it to 8 percent from 5 percent.
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