Jun 17, 2012

Consensus on risky tax raise

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the two main opposition parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, on Friday reached a basic agreement on raising the consumption tax. Although the tax raise is coupled with reform of the social security system, the agreement ...

May 16, 2012

Tax hike plan merits more scrutiny

The Diet has started deliberations on bills to raise the consumption tax rate and reform the social welfare system. Two bills deal with pension-related issues such as beefing up benefits for low-income people and improving pension coverage for irregular workers. Another two bills are ...

Apr 30, 2012

Sorting out bills for careful debate

A special committee was set up in the Lower House on April 26 to mainly discuss tax and social welfare reform bills, including a bill to raise the consumption tax. The political parties should have careful discussions in the committee because the bills will ...

Mar 31, 2012

Approach tax hike with caution

The Noda Cabinet on Friday endorsed and submitted to the Diet a bill aimed at raising the consumption tax from the current 5 percent to 8 percent from April in 2014 and to 10 percent from October 2015. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is so ...

Mar 3, 2012

How to push reform forward

by Shinji Fukukawa

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has stated he would stake his political life on realizing integrated reform of the tax and social security systems. Japan’s financial structure is worse than those of other advanced countries and even that of Greece, which was responsible for the ...

Jan 26, 2012

Tax plan ill-timed and ill-thought

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda made a policy speech before the Diet on Tuesday as it started a regular session for 2012. His main theme was a raise of the consumption tax and he called on opposition parties to take part in consultations on the ...