In this situation, I believe that recovery in the services sector is indispensable to Japan's economy returning to an expanding trend given that it has provided substantial support for economic growth over the past several years through business fixed investment, mainly construction investment, and that it has had a growing presence in Japan's labor market in recent years. 3.
Raising national saving is an essential step if we are to build a capital stock that by, say, 2030 will be sufficiently large to produce goods and services adequate to meet the needs of retirees without unduly curbing the standard of living of our working-age population. Unfortunately, the current Social Security system has not proven a reliable vehicle for such saving.