The Democratic Party will pledge in the coming Upper House election campaign to enhance social security, with the funding coming through reforms, and oppose revising the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9, according to sources.
DP leader Katsuya Okada argued earlier that the government should rely on deficit-covering bonds to make up for the loss of revenue to be created by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent decision to delay the consumption tax hike to October 2019 from April 2017.
The party is apparently backing off from that idea and instead will reportedly say in its platform for the July 10 election that measures to enhance the pension system, medical services and nursing care as well as steps to support child-rearing can be funded by "thoroughly revamping the administrative structure and by undergoing painful reforms."
It is also expected to promise to stick to the official goal of turning the primary balance into a surplus by fiscal 2020, which would allow the government to finance its annual budget, excluding debt-servicing costs, without issuing new bonds.
But observers say it would be difficult to meet social security costs through further government reforms, possibly leaving the DP open to charges of lacking concrete plans.
On the postwar Constitution, which Abe is eager to amend, the DP will pledge its opposition to revising Article 9, which stipulates that Japan forever renounces war and bans the country from maintaining armed forces.
It will also vow to scrap the new security legislation that expands overseas options for use of the Self-Defense Forces, saying it "rocks the Constitution's pacifism."
But the platform is also expected to state that the party "envisages a future-oriented Constitution," the sources said.