Abe can’t afford to put the economy at risk. Households are haunted by the sales tax and a delay would be a big relief.

@reckless- hear hear!!!

Note that almost no one is talking about never increasing it -- the 8% rate is here to stay -- or going back to the stable 5% that we had for nearly two decades, or stimulating the economy by lowering it to under 5%, or (god forbid) abolishing it altogether. No one is talking about reining in government spending... at all. It's all "we must extract more money from the people". Totally one-sided.