December 5, 2012
Akahata editorial (excerpts)
The nationwide election campaign is now underway after the Democratic Party of Japan railroaded a tax hike bill through the last Diet session in alliance with the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties. The planned tax load constitutes a major issue in the general election along with the issues on post-disaster recovery and nuclear energy. The across-the-board tax with its regressive nature will be imposed equally on children, the weak, and the people in the disaster-affected region as well as everyone else.
Leaders of the three parties all stopped short of touching on their responsibility for a backdoor deal on the forcible enactment of the bill in their kick-off speeches.
Pledging to freeze an increase in the consumption tax for four years, the DPJ won in the previous general election in 2009 that resulted in a change in government. Nevertheless, the party quickly abandoned this promise and steamrollered a tax rise through the Diet, together with the LDP and Komei.
Grilled about the party’s breach of campaign pledges, Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko had to say, “I will ask for a voter verdict to a tax increase before it comes into effect.” Right after the enactment of the tax hike bill, he was at least pretending to be “sorry” for breaking the campaign promises, but he now keeps silent. He is rather boasting about a “reform” in public welfare services associated with the planned consumption tax increase. Deputy PM Okada Katsuya, in particular, struck a defiant pose and said, “We changed our mind after becoming the ruling party.”
Like Noda and Okada, LDP President Abe Shinzo and Komei Chief Yamaguchi Natsuo said nothing about the consumption tax in their initial campaign speeches.
The attempt to raise the consumption tax rate became law, but this does not translate to an approval from the public. A Tokyo Shimbun opinion poll shows that 55.6% of respondents are in “opposition” to the tax hike. In an NHK survey, 35% of those polled oppose the scheduled increase while 29% are in favor.
Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in his kickoff speech pointed out that imposing an extra increase of 13.5 trillion yen in the consumption tax on the general public under the present deflationary recession will greatly harm the Japanese economy. It is vital to cancel the plan to raise the consumption tax to get out of the deflationary recession and achieve a domestic demand-driven economic recovery.
The nationwide election campaign is now underway after the Democratic Party of Japan railroaded a tax hike bill through the last Diet session in alliance with the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties. The planned tax load constitutes a major issue in the general election along with the issues on post-disaster recovery and nuclear energy. The across-the-board tax with its regressive nature will be imposed equally on children, the weak, and the people in the disaster-affected region as well as everyone else.
Leaders of the three parties all stopped short of touching on their responsibility for a backdoor deal on the forcible enactment of the bill in their kick-off speeches.
Pledging to freeze an increase in the consumption tax for four years, the DPJ won in the previous general election in 2009 that resulted in a change in government. Nevertheless, the party quickly abandoned this promise and steamrollered a tax rise through the Diet, together with the LDP and Komei.
Grilled about the party’s breach of campaign pledges, Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko had to say, “I will ask for a voter verdict to a tax increase before it comes into effect.” Right after the enactment of the tax hike bill, he was at least pretending to be “sorry” for breaking the campaign promises, but he now keeps silent. He is rather boasting about a “reform” in public welfare services associated with the planned consumption tax increase. Deputy PM Okada Katsuya, in particular, struck a defiant pose and said, “We changed our mind after becoming the ruling party.”
Like Noda and Okada, LDP President Abe Shinzo and Komei Chief Yamaguchi Natsuo said nothing about the consumption tax in their initial campaign speeches.
The attempt to raise the consumption tax rate became law, but this does not translate to an approval from the public. A Tokyo Shimbun opinion poll shows that 55.6% of respondents are in “opposition” to the tax hike. In an NHK survey, 35% of those polled oppose the scheduled increase while 29% are in favor.
Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in his kickoff speech pointed out that imposing an extra increase of 13.5 trillion yen in the consumption tax on the general public under the present deflationary recession will greatly harm the Japanese economy. It is vital to cancel the plan to raise the consumption tax to get out of the deflationary recession and achieve a domestic demand-driven economic recovery.
