October 29, 2022

The Prime Minister Kishida Fumio-led government on October 28 at its Cabinet meeting approved a package of measures to tackle rising prices and boost the economy. To finance the package, the government plans to submit and enact a second supplementary budget for FY2022 totaling about 29 trillion yen during the current extraordinary Diet session.

Later on the same day at a press conference in the Diet building, Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission Chair Tamura Tomoko commenting on the approved economic stimulus package pointed out that while prices continue to climb, real wages continue to decline. She said that even under this situation, PM Kishida presented no concrete measure for what he called “structural pay raises” though he claims that his stimulus package is designed to achieve this. Stating that it is necessary to implement economic policy structured to focus on wage increases, Tamura stressed that the importance of the JCP proposal for wage hikes becomes more obvious. The JCP proposes that the government temporarily levy a tax on the internal reserves which large corporations amassed thanks to the “Abenomics” economic policies and use additional tax revenues to support small businesses’ efforts to offer higher wages.

Tamura pointed out that the government’s economic package aims to tackle the negative impacts of a surge in prices of commodities, chiefly electricity, gas, and imported wheat. She said, “This measure, however, will only bring about a limited effect. In order to protect people’s livelihoods, the government should immediately decide to lower the consumption tax rate, which will contribute to alleviating severe financial hardships facing the people due to the ongoing price surge.” She went on to say that the government should stop its cutbacks in social welfare services and provide financial support for households’ education expenses.

Asked by the press corps about the proposed 29-trillion-yen budget for the economic package, Tamura said, “This spending may become a drop in the bucket unless the government recognizes the need to face up to urgently addressing the underlying structural problems.”