LDP accelerates move to increase consumption tax

Japan Press Weekly

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

LDP accelerates move to increase consumption tax

The Liberal Democratic Party is aggressively advocating an increase in the consumption tax by interpreting the House of Councilors election results to its own advantage.

Regarding its election call to raise the consumption tax rate to 10 percent, the LDP began discussions on mapping out a path to achieve a consumption tax increase. It will conclude the discussions by next spring when the nationwide simultaneous local elections will take place.

The LDP insists that the reason why the party achieved a major advance in the House of Councilors election was because voters accepted the party call to increase the consumption tax rate.

Former Finance Minister Ibuki Bunmei reportedly said to party executives, "If a consumption tax hike had been the key issue of the election, we would have suffered big losses."

In the July Upper House election, the LDP actually obtained a record-low 12 seats in the proportional representation election since the introduction of the proportional representation system. The number of votes cast for the LDP decreased by 2.47 million from the 2007 House of Councilors election.

In an opinion poll released by Manichi Shimbun on July 26, 52 percent were opposed to a consumption tax increase while 45 percent agreed. Meanwhile, 71 percent of respondents said that they do not want the LDP to come back to power again.

- Akahata, July 27, 2010