Opposition parties called for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's head Sunday should he break his promise to follow through on the 2 percentage-point consumption tax hike planned for next April.

Lawmaker Tetsuro Fukuyama, of the main opposition Democratic Party, said during an NHK television program that Abe and his Cabinet should resign if he does not fulfill his pledge and instead pushes the tax hike back again to October 2019.

Officials from the opposition Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party backed Fukuyama's demand.