Japan's plan to privatise public assets falls short of targets

Tokyo

HIDDEN beneath its streets, Japan's ageing sewer pipes highlight a challenge that has held back reforms Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing to revitalise the world's third-biggest economy.

Overhauling the country's infrastructure - roads, tunnels, ports and sewage plants, many of them built after the 1970s when the construction boom started - is a looming burden on the government, whose deficit has already swollen to more than twice its GDP.

Mr Abe's solution is to sell public assets to companies or allow firms to manage them, which he argues would also help reduce the bulgin…