JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan for Japan’s economy to generate self-sustained growth on the back of his three policy “arrows” of massive monetary easing, spending and reform appears to be faltering — but no magic solution is in sight.

    Abe’s aides and advisers are promising to forge ahead with painful structural reforms, while spreading the benefits of “Abenomics” to regional areas and drafting a long-term vision for addressing Japan’s shrinking population.

    But gloomy economic data suggests the plan is not succeeding as hoped and the only short-term contingency plans appear to be further central bank stimulus or delaying a second rise in the sales tax set for October 2015.

    “Abenomics is in trouble — because it’s not happening fast enough,” said Robert Feldman, head of research at Morgan Stanley MUFG in Tokyo, who like many others says Abe must move faster on steps such as labor market reform to boost productivity.

    Failure could leave Japan’s economy stuck in a low-growth mode or, worse, unable to begin to curb public debt already more than twice the size of a US$5 trillion economy, the biggest burden in the industrialized world.

    Abe’s public support, now hovering around 50 percent, depends heavily on the economy. Most voters favor delaying next year’s sales tax rise to 10 percent after an initial hike in April to 8 percent from 5 percent dented a fragile recovery.

    “Will raising the sales tax a second time just when the economy is moving toward recovery really be a plus for the people’s livelihoods?” Koichi Hagiuda, an aide to Abe in his Liberal Democratic Party, said in an interview.

    “But there is also a risk to postponing it. Might not Japan lose the confidence of international society?” Hagiuda added.(SD-Agencies)