Belatedly, Japan's leading politicians are waking from their coma and realising that the country's economy is in a massive mess, hit by a triple whammy of low growth, heavy debts and an ageing population.
The increasing talk in the run-up to next month's upper-house elections is by how much and when to raise the 5 per cent consumption tax. The good news is that there is a sort of Japanese-style consensus forming about the inevitability of doubling the tax. The bad news is that 10 per cent is not going to be sufficient to close the government deficit or get on top of the debts.
The worse news is that the tax will have to go to at least 20 per cent and maybe as high as 37 per cent if Japan wants to escape the debt trap, according to economists who have looked closely at the government's own figures.
The worst news of all is that Japan's leading politicians are still living in a make-believe world of their own, uncontaminated by hard economic facts and figures.
Only one party is advocating an early rise, to 8 per cent by 2012, in the consumption tax. Another party has a 2020 time horizon for the tax to go to 10 per cent. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, having raised the spectre of a Greek-style failure if Japan does not get to grips with its deficits and debts, has now backed away from setting a firm timetable for tackling them through a consumption tax increase.
To be fair, Kan has suggested a national debate over tax issues, but he needs to go further and launch a grand debate on the economy and society and how Japan can get out of the deep hole that its politicians and bureaucrats have dug.