Japan plans to give a 5 percent reward-point rebate to consumers on some payments made through credit cards and other cashless means as a way of underpinning domestic demand after a planned tax increase next October, government officials said Thursday.

The special measure, expected to last for roughly nine months until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was expanded from an earlier plan to implement a 2 percent rebate program.

Fumio Kishida, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had informed him of the plan in a meeting at the premier's office.

The rebate will be handed out in the form of reward points rather than cash, and will not apply to payments made at large store chains, according to officials with knowledge of the plan.

The initiative is part of a series of steps the Japanese government plans to take to ensure that raising the consumption tax from the current 8 percent to 10 percent does not put the brakes on economic activity.

It is also intended to encourage greater use of cashless methods in payment as dependence on cash among Japanese consumers is relatively high.

Source: ANNnewsCH