The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is going ahead with a controversial sales tax hike to help reduce the country's massive public debt. Abe today announced the long-anticipated plan to raise the consumption tax from 5 percent to 8 percent by April of next year. The tax will raise an estimated 81 billion dollar a year. It represents the first major effort since 1997 to reduce Japan's national debt, which at over 10 trillion dollar is the largest in the industrial world. Analysts view the tax increase as a necessary initial part of addressing Japan's fiscal woes.