DPJ leaders once sided with consumption tax hike opponents

Japan Press Weekly

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

DPJ leaders once sided with consumption tax hike opponents

Many key members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan have introduced to the Diet citizens’ petitions calling for a halt to moves to implement a consumption tax increase.

In October 2008, DPJ senior official Noda Yoshihiko, currently serving as the Finance Minister, introduced into the House of Representatives 2,016 signatures in a petition expressing opposition to the consumption tax hike. However, they are still left untouched in the Lower House.

While accepting such signatures from citizens, Noda’s following action contradicted their demand: he became one of the DPJ Dietmembers who strongly called on the party to include a raise in the consumption tax rate in its Manifesto for the House of Councilors election, which took place in July.

Other current DPJ members who have introduced similar residential petitions to the Diet in the last two years include Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku Yoshihito, Land Minister Maehara Seiji, and Secretary General Edano Yukio.

In the last seven years, 12.6 percent of the signatures against the consumption tax hike sent to the Diet were through DPJ parliamentarians and 82.7 percent of them were through Dietmembers of the Japanese Communist Party.

- Akahata, August 17, 2010