Japan chief cabinet secretary Suga comments:

  • No change of plan to raise sales tax in April 2017
  • Situation after Kyushu quakes is not similar to March 2011
  • Not considering incremental sales tax hikes of 1%

Overnight you might recall reports of a more incremental approach yo raising the tax:

  • An option they're considering is increasing the tax by 1 point at a time, rather than the planned 2 point increase in April 2017. They cite the policy head of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party.

Suga obviously prefers the mental approach over the incremental