There is no valid reason for increasing consumption tax: Shii

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

There is no valid reason for increasing consumption tax: Shii

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo criticized Prime Minister Kan Natoto's call to raise the consumption tax rate to 10 percent as preposterous.

Shii made the remarks on June 20 in Tokyo during his street speeches calling for public support for Koike Akira, the JCP candidate for the upcoming House of Councilors election in the Tokyo constituency.

Pointing out that the government claims that it is necessary to increase government revenues through a consumption tax hike to improve social welfare services, Shii argued that the reason why the government is facing financial difficulties is because successive governments have continued with policies of wasteful use of tax money since the 1990s (when the government at the time promised to the U.S. government to carry out public works projects at a cost of 630 trillion yen), have increased the military budget to five trillion yen which includes the record-high budget for support for the U.S. forces in Japan, and have caused a huge loss in the national budget through excessive tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthy.

Shii stated that the way to secure financial resources for reconstructing public finance and improving people's living conditions is to stop wasteful use of tax money, to reduce the military budget, and to properly levy taxes on large companies and wealthy people.

- Akahata, June 21, 2010