Whether to hike the consumption tax, join the Trans Pacific Partnership free-trade talks or abandon nuclear power are the three main issues on which the 16 parties vying in the Dec. 16 Lower House election will stand or fall, especially the smaller, single-issue groups that may be sought out for partnerships after the campaign.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan and its main rivals, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, worked together last summer to pass Noda's key bill to hike the consumption tax, but they strongly differ in their views on the TPP and nuclear power.
The position of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), which was founded by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and is now run by former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, is that the consumption tax should be a local-level levy, not a national one.