TOKYO – The scene: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the economy minister and top central banker receiving a lecture from Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz. The message: No matter how bad the debt, Japan’s economy is too weak to withstand another tax hike.

All is not well in the world’s third-largest economy, and Abe is seeking fresh advice from top experts, both foreign and Japanese, on what to do next.

Japan’s economy initially expanded under a policy mix dubbed “Abenomics” that included monetary easing and fiscal stimulus. But China’s slowdown, weaker than hoped-for growth in other economies and lackluster spending by households and businesses have combined to keep Japan’s growth well below forecasts. Cheaper oil prices, meanwhile, has slowed progress toward a 2 percent inflation goal that Abe and his advisers say is needed to revive the “animal spirits” that would get growth back on track.

The economy contracted at a 0.3 percent annual rate in October-December and is forecast to shrink again in the current quarter.

Japan’s sales tax was due to rise to 10 percent from 8 percent in October 2015, but that increase was deferred until April 2017. Now many here are betting that with an election for the upper house of parliament looming, Abe will once again postpone that hike.

“The headwinds that are facing us are far stronger than what the policymakers expected,” said Masamichi Adachi of JP Morgan in Tokyo.