Japan PM to pledge 30% incomes boost

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will outline the "third arrow" of his economic growth plan Wednesday, which will include plans to boost per-capita income by more than a third in 10 years, media said. Abe is expected to unveil his target of increasing per-capita gross national income (GNI) by more than 1.5 million yen (about $15,000) over the next decade, major papers reported. Japan's per-capita GNI in 2011 stood at $45,180, ranked 17th in the world, according to government data. Abe has pledged to revive the world's third-largest economy and rid it of years of deflation with a plan dubbed "Abenomics", that he says involves the firing of three "arrows". The first two -- huge government spending and a flood of easy money from the central bank -- have already been fired, sending the yen plunging and the stock market soaring. The third -- structural reforms -- is more tricky and remains to be fully fleshed out, but is intended to trigger an "explosion of private sector vigor", Jiji Press said. It will include tax reforms for a new economic zone that his government plans to create, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said. The "national strategic special zone" aims to make Tokyo an easier city for international business, with Abe seeking to put it alongside New York and London by cutting through red tape, the Yomiuri said. In the special zone, international schools and foreign doctors would be allowed to do business with fewer restrictions and foreign investors would be given favourable tax rates, the paper said. Abe will likely pledge to double foreign investment in Japan to 35 trillion yen by 2020, the Asahi Shimbun said, a promise that sits alongside an earlier aim to treble infrastructure exports to 30 trillion yen by the same year. On Tuesday the Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the Abe administration was determined to boost corporate investment by 10 percent over the next three years. The aim is to recover it to the more than 70 trillion yen levels it was at before Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 and heralded the global financial crisis, he said.