JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined yesterday a sweeping blueprint for rejuvenating Japan's ailing economy, calling for reforms to bring more women into the workforce, promote industrial innovation and coax cash-hoarding corporations into investing more.

The strategies Abe sketched out in a speech form the third and most important plank in his "Abenomics" platform, which so far has focused on what he calls the first "two arrows" in his arsenal: loosening monetary policy and boosting public spending. He has promised structural reforms to underpin growth in the long run as Japan's population ages and shrinks.

"Now is the time for Japan to be an engine for world economic recovery," Abe said. "Japanese business, what is being asked is that you speed up. Do not fear risk, be determined and use your capacity for action."

Without an overhaul of Japan's bureaucracy and its agricultural, industrial and labor policies, economists say Abenomics is bound to provide only a temporary boost to growth while vastly increasing the country's public debt burden. All agree that reforms are needed to break Japan free of the deflationary malaise that has stymied growth since its bubble economy collapsed more than 20 years ago.

Abe acknowledged the challenge of pushing through politically difficult reforms where many others have failed.

"To achieve this will be like 'whack a mole,'" he said, referring to the arcade game where players bash the "moles" heads as they pop up. "There is no end," he said.

Abe pledged yesterday to raise Japanese incomes by 3 percent a year to protect consumers' purchasing power if the government meets its target of boosting inflation to 2 percent within two years. However, his speech was short on details of how to achieve that aim.

He also promised to raise Japan's per capita gross national income by more than 1.5 million yen (US$14,970) in 10 years. It now is about US$45,000 a year.