TOKYO (Reuters) - A senior official in Komeito, the junior party in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition government, said on Friday it would be difficult to press ahead with a plan to raise the nation's sales tax next year.
"I think conditions are severe for (raising the tax) next October," Isamu Ueda told reporters after a meeting of Komeito's economic revival council, which he heads.
"The risks will be high if we don't let the economy stabilise a bit more" from an April increase in the sales tax, he said. "If the economy relapses, this will all come to nothing. We need to be cautious in deciding this."
Abe raised the tax to 8 percent in April from 5 percent, triggering the deepest contraction in the second quarter since the global financial crisis. Under current law, the government is to raise the tax to 10 percent in October 2015, but the prime minister is to decide in December whether the economy is strong enough to withstand the second blow.
A top Japanese government official close to Abe said last week that the premier should delay the tax hike.
Abe has said he is "neutral" on the decision. Powerful interest including the Finance Ministry, big business and the International Monetary Fund want the tax hike to go ahead as a step towards curbing Japan's massive government debt.
(Reporting by Yuko Yoshikawa; Writing by William Mallard; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)