date:Apr 07, 2014
he world's third-biggest economy.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised the tax for the first time since 1997 in a bid to curb Japan's runaway public debt, which at more than twice the nation's annual GDP is the biggest in the industrial world. The increase comes, however, just as the economy has been slowing.
Abe has been struggling to shake consumers and companies out of a deflationary mindset in an attempt to decisively pull Japan out of 15 years of falling prices and tepid growth. The Bank of J