Policy inefficiency meets external shocks: Japan's fiscal and social risks escalate

Policy inefficiency meets external shocks: Japan's fiscal and social risks escalate

A Teikoku Databank survey has revealed only 25% of the firms back Japan PM Takaichi's food tax cut policies. The Middle East energy crisis has piled atop Japan's fiscal burdens — already stretched owing to its world-leading government debt ratio among developed countries. With analysts predicting welfare reductions on account of planned tax cuts and spending hikes, the wealth gap and social division is only set to widen, as the "Takaichi Fallout…