In a sudden shift, the government has nearly doubled its estimated per capita burden from next year's consumption tax hike, drawing uproar and protest from opposition lawmakers at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting.
Previously, the government had estimated that every resident in Japan would need to pay ¥14,000 more per year after the consumption tax is hiked to 10 percent from the current 8 percent in April 2017.
During a budget committee session Tuesday, however, the government revised the estimate, nearly doubling it to ¥27,000 after Akira Koike of the Japanese Communist Party questioned apparent discrepancies in figures presented by Finance Minister Taro Aso.