TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba does not plan to seek a consumption tax cut as a way to blunt the pain of higher prices, concluding that such a move would further squeeze the government's finances.
"The government does not think it is appropriate to lower that tax rate," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters Friday. "It's been positioned as an important funding source for the social security system for all generations," he said.
