The government is to take the necessary legislative measures by fiscal 2011 in order to carry out, without delay and in stages, a fundamental reform of the tax system including the consumption tax, on the premise that economic conditions are improved through concentrated efforts toward economic recovery within three years including fiscal 2008, while taking into account the financial measures for raising the national treasury's share of the cost of the basic pension to one half and the projected costs of social security benefits for pensions, medical care, and long-term care and of measures for addressing the declining birthrate. In such a case, the reform is to aim at establishing a sustainable fiscal structure by the middle of the 2010s (meaning the period from 2010 to 2019).