Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday reiterated the need to hold nonpartisan talks on tax reform, telling a session of the Lower House Budget Committee that the government must curb the growing national debt.
"Discussing how we should pay for our social welfare is necessary," Kan said, adding that raising the consumption tax should "obviously" be one of the issues on the table.
Last week Kan officially apologized in a meeting of Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers for the party's setback in the July 11 election, acknowledging that his "careless" remarks on hiking the consumption tax contributed to the failure of the DPJ-led coalition to hold its majority in the Upper House.