Japan at the 2014 Winter Olympics Japan at the 2014 Winter Olympics Japan competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia from 7 to 23 February 2014. Japan's team consisted of 136 athletes in all 15 sports. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the opening ceremony, wanting to show the Russians how important the relationship between the two countries is. According to the quota allocation released on January 27, 2014, Japan has achieved two quota spots in alpine skiing. No one of the several female skiers regularly competing in the World Cup managed to achieve qualification. Based on their performance at the 2012 and 2013
National debt of Japan Noda of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) - passed a bill in June 2012 to double the national consumption tax to 10%. This increased the tax to 8% in April 2014. The originally scheduled 10% tax increase to be implemented in October 2015 has been delayed until at least October 2019. The goal of this increase was to halt the growth of the public debt by 2015, although reducing the debt would require further measures. The DPJ subsequently lost control of the Diet in late 2012, and Noda's successor Shinzo Abe, of the Liberal Democratic Party, implemented the "Abenomics"