Hiromasa Yonekura, the newly appointed chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), urged the government Thursday to raise the 5 percent consumption tax to improve the nation's fiscal health.
"The government should take a swift step toward the tax hike," Yonekura said at his first news conference after being approved as Keidanren's new chairman at a general meeting earlier in the day.
He said a gradual rise by 1 percentage point in the consumption tax every year would generate ¥2.5 trillion in tax revenue, which would help finance the swelling social welfare and pension costs that are growing by ¥1 trillion annually.