Japan Press Weekly

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2013 October 2 - 8 [ECONOMY]

People voice anger at gov’t decision to raise sales tax

Public anger is growing at Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s decision to raise the consumption tax rate from the current 5% to 8% in April next year. The Japanese Communist Party and civil groups are taking to the streets across the country to protest the decision and block the tax hike.

On October 1, the day PM Abe announced the sales tax increase, JCP Vice Chair Koike Akira and Upper House member Tamura Tomoko delivered speeches in front of Shinjuku Station in central Tokyo, calling on passersby to sign a petition to demand a halt to the tax hike. A 76-year-old woman who was listening to the speeches, said, “I cannot understand the government’s intent to raise the sales tax and at the same time abolish the corporate tax for the reconstruction of the 2011 disaster-hit areas while disaster victims are still suffering.” She signed the petition and contributed 1,000 yen to a campaigner.

A 29-year-old male worker referred to a government plan to implement tax breaks for corporate capital spending in order to prevent a further economic downturn due to the consumption tax hike. “I think it is nonsense that the government spends as much as five trillion yen in taxpayer money for economic measures benefitting large corporations to counter the negative affect of increasing the sales tax,” he said.

Another man, 28, working for a fresh fish retailer, said, “My wages have remained at a low level for a long time, and I’m not sure whether I can get a bonus at the end of this year. What the administration should do is not to raise the sales tax but to take measures enabling the youth to have hope for their futures.”

The Miyagi prefectural government terminated at the end of this March its special measures to exempt disaster victims from paying their medical expenses. Pension recipients living in temporary housing units in Miyagi’s Ishinomaki City said in anger, “The government is to impose a heavier tax burden on us while our medical costs and commodity prices are going up. On top of that, public pension payouts have been reduced since October 1. Under these circumstances, our blood pressure will also rise. Do they wish the elderly would die soon?”

The JCP Tokyo Metropolitan Committee on October 2 submitted to the Diet petitions signed by 27,155 persons seeking a stop to the consumption tax hike.