Leaders of the ruling and opposition camps engaged in their first televised debate Tuesday ahead of the July 11 Upper House election, offering different takes on the crucial but politically unpopular topic of raising the consumption tax.
While Prime Minister Naoto Kan, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, emphasized the need to increase revenues to curb the snowballing national debt, opposition forces were quick to strike back.
Kan has proposed nonpartisan discussions on overhauling the tax system after the Upper House campaign. He has also made favorable comments regarding the proposal by the Liberal Democratic Party, the main opposition force, to hike the 5 percent consumption tax to 10 percent.