Japan Press Weekly

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2013 September 25 - October 1 [POLITICS]

5,000 voices opposing consumption tax hike resound through Tokyo

More than 5,000 citizens massed in a rally held at Tokyo’s Hibiya Amphitheater on September 27, calling for the cancellation of the government plan to increase the consumption tax rate next April.

Consumers and small business owners spoke in turn against the heavier tax burden at the rally followed by a big demonstration march through the Ginza, a well-known Tokyo shopping district.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi also spoke on behalf of the party in solidarity with all the participants.

He said that the average annual income of workers decreased by 700,000 yen from its peak in 1997 and that their monthly salaries marked a 14-month consecutive drop below the previous year level.

On the other hand, prices are going up, he pointed out and many small- and medium-sized enterprises amid the prolonged recession and the weak yen are incapable of shifting both the consumption tax and the price rise of raw materials onto their sales price.

Ichida stated that the Japanese economy no longer has enough strength to endure such an excessive tax burden, which no one has experienced before, with an 8% increase (8 trillion yen) or a 10% increase (13.5 trillion yen) in the consumption tax.

A higher consumption tax rate will throw the country’s economy into despair, the JCP spokesperson said and this was already witnessed when the consumption tax rate went up from 3% to 5% in 1997.

In fear of a possible economic setback, the Abe government will implement an economic stimulus package of six-trillion yen in exchange for the plan to raise the consumption tax rate.

Ichida said that it is absolutely ridiculous to introduce a higher consumption tax rate when it will no doubt depress the economy and to earmark the revenue from that tax to supposedly boost the economy.

The six-trillion yen economic stimulus will be used mostly in tax breaks for large corporations and for unneeded large public works projects. The government is considering abolishing the so-called reconstruction tax being imposed on corporations in order to secure funds for recovery from the 2011 Great East Japan Disaster while maintaining the increase in income and residential taxes imposed for the same reason onto the general public.

He called on the participants to work together with the JCP to put a stop to be runaway policies of Prime Minister Abe and his government composed of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komei Party which have learned nothing from the past in regard to the nation’s economy and finances.