The Democratic Party of Japan has proposed cutting Diet members' salaries by ¥3 million annually in fiscal 2012 and 2013. The proposal came after the Diet enacted a special law to cut the wages for national public servants by an average of about 7.8 percent, also in fiscal 2012 and 2013. The public servant wage cuts will save about ¥290 billion a year, and the savings will be used for reconstruction of areas devastated by the 3/11 quake and tsunami or affected by the subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says that if national public servants have to bear such wage cuts, lawmakers also should share the suffering by reducing their salaries.
Mr. Noda's intention appears clear. By showing that Diet members are also sacrificing, he is trying to get people to accept his planned consumption tax increase. But even if the DPJ's proposal to cut Diet members' salaries is implemented, it will save only slightly more than ¥2 billion a year. The gesture will amount to little more than a political performance to dupe people.