Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Saturday criticized opposition leaders as irresponsible for proposing a consumption tax cut without a plan to offset lost revenue, as Japan's House of Councillors election campaign entered its first weekend.
Official campaigning for the July 20 upper house race began Thursday, with parties vying over tax cuts as a form of inflation relief. The focus is on whether the ruling coalition led by Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party can maintain its majority in the chamber.
"All of the consumption tax is used for health care, nursing and other services. Can we really afford to cut it?" Ishiba said during a stump speech in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, reiterating his unwillingness to reduce the rate.
Seiji Maehara, co-head of the Japan Innovation Party, said in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo, "If we win, we can bring the consumption tax on food down to zero percent" from the current 8 percent. It is the second-largest opposition party in the upper house.
Meanwhile, Yoshihiko Noda, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, called on Ishiba's minority ruling coalition in the more powerful House of Representatives to abolish the provisional gasoline tax rate, a proposal the coalition has rejected.
"If we can force the ruling camp into a minority in the upper house, like we have in the lower house, we will be able to do away with the provisional gasoline tax rate in the extraordinary parliamentary session" expected this fall, Noda said.
Other opposition forces, such as the Japanese Communist Party, appealed to voters on Saturday, along with groups that have recently gained a foothold in elections, including the Democratic Party for the People, Reiwa Shinsengumi and Sanseito.
Ishiba has defined victory as the ruling LDP and its junior coalition partner, the Komeito party, maintaining a majority in the upper house, while Noda has expressed eagerness to reduce the coalition's share to less than half in the chamber overall.
© KYODO
22 Comments
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YankeeX
He’s not wrong. Universal healthcare is expensive, and Japan’s inverted population pyramid only worsens the problem. The country’s stagflation and economic troubles stem from an over-reliance on cheap credit, which in turn weakens the yen. Japan is quite literally getting poorer by the day. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
deanzaZZR
The opposition should rap the LDP over large multi-year military budget increase with no revenue offset plan.
JeffLee
His comments might make sense if the govt hadn't slashed the corpoate tax several years ago while hiking the tax on consumers. The obvious solution is to rebalance, given that the corporate sector has been making the highest profits in history in recent years while the real wages of workers have nearly consistently fallen.
Consumption drives over 60% of Japan's economy, afterall, more than any othe factor.
Better an over-reliance on cheap credit than on expensive credit, LOL.
factchecker
Stop giving tax free shopping breaks to tourists on holiday and use that money instead.
dbsaiya
No consumption tax on food, water and medicine. Off-set by reducing the number of politicians, their pay and perks. Increase the corporate tax for upper tier, and close all duty free shops throughout Japan. Duty free is only at the airports. Stop buying war toyz and focus on the real problems of defense, food security, energy security and recruitment and retention shortfalls in the JSDF.
Legrande
Naturally all of the opposition parties do have their countermeasure proposals which they are campaigning on, but for some odd reason (purely negligence?) JT's poorly researched article doesn't mention them.
tora
Like the commentator above says, the government is implementing a massive increase in the defence budget. That's going to be paid for by increased taxes! The hypocrisy.
And universal health care is not really universal. We pay for that through forced premiums (which keep on going up) that are deducted from our wages. On top of that there is also a 30% co-pay, which was increase from 20%, by the way. Soon to be 40??
The quicker the LDP is thrown out, the better.
dan
Billions for bombs can't do 0 % tax on basic food necessities ....hmmm .
Agent_Neo
We need to increase military spending. If China lowers it, we should lower it.
The diversion of consumption tax to non-welfare purposes, the transfer of bureaucrats to other positions, the fact that the supplementary budget from 3/11 is still in place, the wasteful allowances for Chinese and Korean students studying abroad, the provision of welfare to Chinese and Korean families, and the wasteful provision of advanced medical care to Chinese and Korean people.
They have not even done anything about the Kurds in Saitama Prefecture.
After all, Ishiba is no good, criticizing the ruling party without making budget cuts. If he loses the House of Councillors election, the Tokyo gubernatorial election, and the upcoming Taegeuk election, he should be gone as soon as possible.
grc
It’s nice to see parties having grown-up debates - or indeed having to have any debate at all. Welcome to REAL multi-party democracy, Japan
Lorem ipsum
Yeah others have said it already.
Politicians can start by cutting military spending. Then they can stop throwing o much money to foreign countries in the form of foreign aid. My god. Fix things in your own country first. And then they can finish by cutting their own overpaid salaries, but of course they would never do that, like the dirty leeches they are.
fxgai
The best way to deal with inflation would be to go back to a strong currency policy.
Commit to a strong yen and the USD/JPY rate could be back towards 100, smashing inflation and lowering prices.
The problem is Japan's government has too much public debt and wants to deal with it by inflating it away, so they don't want the currency to strengthen.
And the voters don't demand a strong yen, probably because like me, they have dumped their yen for foreign assets.
And the politicians can't even debate slashing wasteful spending, or spending on priorities. There is no prioritization. There is no agreement about priorities.
shogun36
But getting a ¥4 million summer bonus was a part of HELPING revenue?
Be gone, Ishiba.
Sam Watters
Yes, you can. You do what the majority of Japanese are doing: you make tough choices. You sacrifice. You do with less. Politicians in general never take a bite of the pain sandwich and it is time they do. The LDP is notorious for its parasitic behavior.
藤原
Here is what you need to do:
INCREASE CORPORATE TAXES! \
CUT MILITARY SPENDING!
STOP SENDING MONEY OVERSEAS and help your own country.
NO MORE BIG GOVERNMENT PROJECTS!
The opposition can use all of this to create an alternative to the LDP, this is the perfect opening for anyone to take the lead and create a policy as an alternative to the LDP, because if the opposition does not. It's going to be the continuation of the same policy with an decreases in corporate taxes, big government projects, sending money overseas, asking the everyone in Japan to take the higher prices and bare it, increases in consumption tax from 10 to 15, 20, 25, and probably even 30% in the decades to come. This needs to stop now. The LDP needs to be SEVERELY PUNISHED, one that takes decades and decades to recover from, if ever. The opposition, if they can pull it together, which I highly doubt, can change course.
The Nomad
Higher prices for basically everything already means higher consumption tax revenues so basically they could cut it by let's say 2 percent and still get more revenue than last year
Triring
You don't need to offset anything.
The dividends gained from US treasury bonds as well as
intrests gained from various oveseas government loans are
not included within the regular fiscal budget either.
The balance is more than enough to pay for the tax reduction.
The finance ministry wants this hidden so the beuracrats can claim high points.
Triring
Basically the tail is waging the dog with the present government not understanding the issue.
They are complete fools with no grasp of reality.
Aoi Azuuri
PM's remark "All of the consumption tax is used for health care, nursing and other services" is deception.
Japan's consumption tax spending for health care or nursing is just part of it.
Ruling party LDP victimized even health care budget to rapidly increase military budget.
in this country, corporation tax had been reduced in the shade of increasing consumer tax.
And corporations' internal reserves are now about 600 trillions yen.
JCP insists taxation to such hoarded wealth, but PM seems to ignore it because ruling party LDP wants donation from corporations.
Triring
Exports from Japan isnot exempt but all consumption tax paid to produce the item for export is REFUNDED to the exporter. For example every car shipped abroad recieves a refund making the Nagoya tax office in the red paying refunds to Toyota.
This is funded by consumption tax we paid!!!
nozaki
There was no consumption tax in Japan until 1989.
It has been completely forgotten socially.
kurisupisu
When are the politicians going to take off their ties and reduce their carbon footprint and reduce the burden on the tax-payer?