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2021 June 2 - 8 TOP3 [POLITICS]

JCP Koike: Tax the rich to redress increase in economic disparities during pandemic

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira at a House of Councilors committee meeting on June 7 demanded that a fair share of income tax be levied on the wealthy in order to redress the growing economic disparities under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Koike pointed out that many central banks in the world, including the Bank of Japan, have taken large-scale monetary-easing steps as a coronavirus countermeasure, leading to a rise in stock prices. As a result, while many people lost their jobs and were plunged into poverty, total assets of the wealthy in Japan, for example, sharply increased to 23.6 trillion yen in May 2021 from 12.2 trillion yen in March 2020.

Koike pointed out that the U.S. will double the income tax rate on financial instruments benefiting the rich; the U.K. will expand taxes on financial instruments; New Zealand, Spain, and Argentina decided to impose heavier taxes on the wealthy; and G7 finance ministers agreed to increase corporate taxes to at least 15% and to put an end to the tax-breaks race to the bottom.

Koike said, "The Japanese government should also increase taxes on the rich who earned from their financial instruments in order to narrow the economic gap," demanding implementing an appropriate share of tax burdens on rich people and large corporations. He also demanded that the rate of consumption tax be reduced to 5% from the current 10%.