December 25, 2011
The FY 2012 draft budget was approved in the cabinet meeting on December 24, amounting to 90.33 trillion yen. Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on the same day issued a statement on the FY 2012 draft budget as follows:
The next fiscal year’s budget adopted by the Noda Cabinet turns out to be no different from the successive Liberal Democratic Party government budgets because it negatively affects the general public’s livelihoods by reducing pension benefits and cutting social services while maintaining tax cuts favorable to large corporations and the wealthy as well as by increasing the military budget and reviving budgets for large-scale development projects.
This draft budget shows that the DPJ government has thoroughly become the successor to LDP politics characterized by obeying every request from Japan’s business circles and the United States.
The FY 2012 draft budget marks the first step towards a consumption tax increase and cutbacks in social services, which the Noda government is aiming to accomplish.
Concerning social services, pensions for the aged and the handicapped as well as child rearing allowances are reduced, and nursing-care insurance premiums are substantially raised. Reduced childcare allowances and the end of the system of tax breaks for families with children under the age of 16 will create several million children whose childcare allowance will be even smaller than the childcare allowance allotted by the former LDP governments.
Further adverse revision of social services is planned. For example, the starting age of receiving pensions will be put off to 68-70, and patients’ payments for medical treatment at hospitals will be increased.
Government compensation bonds are to be issued as a resource to supplement the funding for the basic pension program, and the compensation will be financed by an increase in the consumption tax rate in the future. It is unacceptable to take for granted the idea of a consumption tax increase as a foregone conclusion when the issue is arousing controversy not only in the Diet but also even within the ruling parties.
The draft budget establishes a special account for reconstruction from the disaster. However, national support measures to reconstruct victims’ livelihoods and occupations are extremely insufficient. The special account is also not sufficient to proceed with radioactive decontamination work on a full scale. What is worse, the reconstruction fund is sought exclusively by means of a tax increase on ordinary people while large corporations are given tax breaks.
Wasteful items are outstanding in the draft budget. Budgets for large-scale public works projects are earmarked for the construction of a loop highway in Tokyo’s outskirts and for the Yamba and Isawa dams. The government insistence on maintaining nuclear power generation is clearly revealed in the 420 billion yen budget related to promoting nuclear power generation.
The enormous military budget, including the “sympathy budget” for the U.S. forces stationed in Japan, is kept intact. The Defense Ministry is to purchase more helicopter-carrier vessels costing 120 billion yen each, and has decided to spend a total of 1.6 trillion yen to buy U.S.-made next-generation F35 fighter aircraft which is still under development.
Another sanctuary is given to government subsidies to political parties.
The amount of national bond issuance under the DPJ government has exceeded 44 trillion yen for three years in a row. The figure reaches 47 trillion yen when the “invisible debt” of government compensation bonds is taken into account, making the FY 2012 draft budget the largest proposed as an initial budget.
The DPJ government’s ways of trying to break the impasse with an increase in the consumption tax rate, serial cutbacks in social services, and Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement, will ruin people’s livelihoods and further dampen domestic demand, resulting in a worsened economic and fiscal situation.
Now is the time to turn away from the politics of allegiance to Japan’s business circles and the United States and move towards one of defending people’s living conditions and their well-being, peace, promoting reconstruction work from the disaster, and protecting people’s lives and health from the danger of radioactivity.
It is necessary to clearly oppose the planned consumption tax increase and demand that the government secure fiscal resources through taxation on the wealthy, which is now a world trend, and through thorough reforms related to revenues and expenditures. The JCP is determined to work together with the public to achieve this aim.
The next fiscal year’s budget adopted by the Noda Cabinet turns out to be no different from the successive Liberal Democratic Party government budgets because it negatively affects the general public’s livelihoods by reducing pension benefits and cutting social services while maintaining tax cuts favorable to large corporations and the wealthy as well as by increasing the military budget and reviving budgets for large-scale development projects.
This draft budget shows that the DPJ government has thoroughly become the successor to LDP politics characterized by obeying every request from Japan’s business circles and the United States.
The FY 2012 draft budget marks the first step towards a consumption tax increase and cutbacks in social services, which the Noda government is aiming to accomplish.
Concerning social services, pensions for the aged and the handicapped as well as child rearing allowances are reduced, and nursing-care insurance premiums are substantially raised. Reduced childcare allowances and the end of the system of tax breaks for families with children under the age of 16 will create several million children whose childcare allowance will be even smaller than the childcare allowance allotted by the former LDP governments.
Further adverse revision of social services is planned. For example, the starting age of receiving pensions will be put off to 68-70, and patients’ payments for medical treatment at hospitals will be increased.
Government compensation bonds are to be issued as a resource to supplement the funding for the basic pension program, and the compensation will be financed by an increase in the consumption tax rate in the future. It is unacceptable to take for granted the idea of a consumption tax increase as a foregone conclusion when the issue is arousing controversy not only in the Diet but also even within the ruling parties.
The draft budget establishes a special account for reconstruction from the disaster. However, national support measures to reconstruct victims’ livelihoods and occupations are extremely insufficient. The special account is also not sufficient to proceed with radioactive decontamination work on a full scale. What is worse, the reconstruction fund is sought exclusively by means of a tax increase on ordinary people while large corporations are given tax breaks.
Wasteful items are outstanding in the draft budget. Budgets for large-scale public works projects are earmarked for the construction of a loop highway in Tokyo’s outskirts and for the Yamba and Isawa dams. The government insistence on maintaining nuclear power generation is clearly revealed in the 420 billion yen budget related to promoting nuclear power generation.
The enormous military budget, including the “sympathy budget” for the U.S. forces stationed in Japan, is kept intact. The Defense Ministry is to purchase more helicopter-carrier vessels costing 120 billion yen each, and has decided to spend a total of 1.6 trillion yen to buy U.S.-made next-generation F35 fighter aircraft which is still under development.
Another sanctuary is given to government subsidies to political parties.
The amount of national bond issuance under the DPJ government has exceeded 44 trillion yen for three years in a row. The figure reaches 47 trillion yen when the “invisible debt” of government compensation bonds is taken into account, making the FY 2012 draft budget the largest proposed as an initial budget.
The DPJ government’s ways of trying to break the impasse with an increase in the consumption tax rate, serial cutbacks in social services, and Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement, will ruin people’s livelihoods and further dampen domestic demand, resulting in a worsened economic and fiscal situation.
Now is the time to turn away from the politics of allegiance to Japan’s business circles and the United States and move towards one of defending people’s living conditions and their well-being, peace, promoting reconstruction work from the disaster, and protecting people’s lives and health from the danger of radioactivity.
It is necessary to clearly oppose the planned consumption tax increase and demand that the government secure fiscal resources through taxation on the wealthy, which is now a world trend, and through thorough reforms related to revenues and expenditures. The JCP is determined to work together with the public to achieve this aim.
