Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan goes into a crucial party vote next week with the government launching new measures to keep the economy from weakening.
An upward revision of economic growth Friday to 0.4 percent in the last quarter gave the government little to cheer about with the yen still near 15-year highs.
The Cabinet's over $10 billion stimulus package unveiled Friday is hoped to give the economy a mild kick and create 200,000 jobs.
The government says it will compile an extra budget if needed, but analysts say there's little room to act with public debt twice the size of Japan's $5 trillion economy.
For Kan, the renewed focus on the economy comes before a key Democratic Party showdown Tuesday with Ichiro Ozawa that will decided Japan's next premier.
Analysts say the party election is too close to call, but JP Morgan's Jesper Koll says Ozawa is the stronger leader.
[Jesper Koll, Head of Research, JP Morgan]:
"The other thing you've got to think of is what Japan needs is a strong leader, someone who can actually coordinate policies rather than somebody who can just talk about a lot of things. There's a lot of problems, there's a lot of issues here, but we need decisions being made in a credible way. And that is one thing what Ozawa is good at. He makes decisions and he makes decisions to win."
Overall, public support is stronger for Kan than Ozawa, but the election will only include party MPs, as well as local officials and party members.
