Japan will temporarily slash consumption tax on food from 8% to just 1% starting next April, the prime minister said on Thursday, as her administration seeks to tackle rising inflation.
It will be the first such reduction since the tax was introduced in 1989, and the rate will return to 8% after two years, Sanae Takaichi told reporters.
The move aims to ease cost-of-living pressures in the world's fourth-largest economy, which have been rising due to the war in the Middle East and a weak yen.
But it comes despite worries over Japan's colossal debts, which are more than twice the size of its gross domestic product -- the highest ratio among advanced economies.
From April, Japan will implement "the lowering of our sales tax on food and beverages to 1% for two years", Takaichi said.
