Japan Press Weekly

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2014 November 5 - 11 [POLITICS]

Shii calls for cooperation to block another increase in sales tax

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on November 6 at a press conference in the Diet building called for a wide range cooperation to stop Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s government from further increasing the consumption tax rate from the current 8% to 10% next year.

In defiance of strong public opposition, the Abe administration raised the sales tax rate from 5% to 8% in April. PM Abe is to make a final decision by the end of this year about whether to increase the current tax rate to 10% in October 2015 as scheduled.

Shii referred to the latest Monthly Labor Survey results showing that the real wage index in September was down 2.9% from the same month last year and that the index has been lower than that of the year before for 15 months in a row. He pointed out that both price rises caused by the large-scale monetary easing measures and the consumption tax hike implemented in April are dealing a further blow to family budgets and Japan’s economy.

The JCP chair also pointed to the fact that all recent opinion polls indicate that more than 70% of the respondents oppose another increase in the sales tax.

“The JCP is proposing a concrete policy to secure adequate financial resources without depending on sales tax revenues. Meanwhile, there are some people who admit the need to increase the consumption tax rate but oppose raising it next year. Putting aside such differences, we will work to collaborate with a broad range of people to stop another tax hike,” he stressed.