Japan Press Weekly

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2012 July 11 - 17 [LABOR]

Rengo backs consumption tax hike allying with big business circles

Some people are questioning Rengo’s move. The Japan Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), the largest national center of trade unions in Japan, has been encouraging the Noda Administration to enforce a consumption tax rate increase, joining hands with the Japanese big business circles.

On June 15, as an agreement to double the consumption tax rate was reached between the ruling Democratic Party and the opposition Liberal Democratic and Komei parties, Rengo Secretary General Nagumo Hiroyuki published his comment praising the agreement for “promoting reforms”.

When the government rammed a consumption tax hike bill through the Lower House on June 26, Nagumo criticized the DPJ “rebels” who voted against the bill, saying, “It is deplorable that members of the ruling party opposed the bill.” On July 2, concerning the fact that former DPJ leader Ozawa Ichiro left the party with his followers, the secretary general said that “it is quite regrettable”.

A journalist dealing with the labor movement said, “Rengo is no longer what it used to be.”

In February 1994, then Prime Minister Hosokawa Morihiro, heading the non-LDP coalition government, announced a plan to increase the consumption tax rate from 3% to 7% after changing its name into a “national welfare tax”. Then Rengo President Yamagishi Akira immediately expressed opposition to the plan, saying, “We cannot accept a tax hike,” though the national center was supporting the coalition cabinet. Rengo called for “do-or-die resistance” to the plan and finally forced the prime minister to withdraw it. One person behind this tax hike plan was Ozawa Ichiro, then Chief Secretary of the Japan Renewal Party (Shinseito).

Now, against the wishes of many citizens and workers, including Rengo union members, the national center has been backing up the Noda Cabinet and urging it to reactivate idled nuclear reactors and participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.

Sports papers have criticized Rengo’s move recently. The Nikkan Sports News on June 29 carried a column titled “Rengo as well as DPJ contradicts itself”. It said, “How does Rengo, posing as a Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), explain to its union members about its approval of the consumption tax hike and resumption of nuclear power plants? Rengo’s move is inconsistent with what it previously claimed.”