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.