Japan has set targets to rein¹ in its national debt, the biggest in the industrialised world.

日本已设定目标控制国债——这是发达国家里数额最大的。

Prime Minister Naoto Kan wants to cut Japan's debt levels

New Prime Minister Naoto Kan has made fiscal²（国库的，财政的） reform a top priority, saying that without it the country could face the risk of a Greece-style crisis.

However, the government has given no specific ideas of how it will reach its long-term goal of balancing its budget.

Japan also raised its growth forecast for the year to March to 2.6%, compared with an earlier 1.4% estimate.

That would be the first time the country's GDP had expanded by more than 2% since 2006.

Growth in the year to March 2012 is predicted to be 2%.

"Thanks to the government's stimulus³ packages（刺激计划） , strengthening in business profitability and improvements in employment and household income（家庭收入） are spreading to an increase in private demand," the Cabinet Office said.

"If this cycle continues, Japan's economy is expected to go on a track towards an autonomous⁴（自治的，自主的） recovery."

However, it warned that deflation was still a problem - with prices not expected to to stop falling until at least next year.

Confidence

Japan has been borrowing money for two decades, trying to bring its economy out of stagnation⁵（停滞） .

But although its debt is now estimated at about twice the size of its GDP, some economists⁶ believe the fiscal situation is not as bad as it appears.

This is largely because Japan has a trade surplus（贸易盈余） , and it is still able to borrow money at some of the lowest interest rates in the world.

But the government has acknowledged that if Japan has to borrow more from abroad, the higher interest rates demanded could tip the country into the abyss（深渊，无底洞） .

"We must prevent a situation like Greece, where Japan loses the confidence of the bond markets（债券市场） , pushing interest rates higher and leading its finances into a state of collapse," it said in its debt-tackling plan.

The plan states it will bring the budget back into surplus by the end of the decade.

To achieve it, the government has put a cap on the amount of money it spends and borrows.

Raising consumption tax（消费税） is also under consideration - but probably not for several years.

The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo said that it was Japan's ageing population that most threatened the country's long term future.

"Much of the government's debt is held by the Japanese themselves, but as workers become pensioners⁷（领退休金者） they may start spending their nest eggs（储备金，人造留窝鸡蛋） ," he said.