Japan looks set to surrender one of its most effective tools for curbing social spending as aging pushes up health, pension and elder care costs.
Key advisers to the Finance Ministry recently dropped a recommendation to cap annual increases in social spending at ¥500 billion, suggesting instead that limits be calibrated with aging costs, without offering details.
They also favored a five-year delay in the government's target for achieving a surplus in the primary budget balance, a move that won support from advisers to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week.
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