Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who heads the Democratic Party of Japan, is expected to meet with former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa next week and try to persuade him to back his administration's proposed consumption tax hike, a senior DPJ lawmaker said Tuesday.
Noda wants Ozawa to back a bill to double the 5 percent tax in stages by 2015. But Ozawa, the DPJ's kingpin and head of the party's largest faction, strongly opposes the tax increase and is not expected to change his position.
DPJ Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi told reporters after meeting with Ozawa on Tuesday that he had requested the talks and secured Ozawa's consent. He indicated to party executives that the meeting will likely take place next week, as Noda hopes to get the tax hike bill passed early next month.
If most of Ozawa's allies were to vote against the tax hike legislation in the Lower House, the plan would be scuttled because the opposition parties are also against the increase.
Noda thus needs the support of Ozawa, who is credited with engineering the DPJ's rise to power in 2009.
The tax bill calls for raising the rate to 8 percent in April 2014 and to 10 percent in October 2015 to cover swelling social security costs.
The meeting between Noda and Ozawa would mark a turning point in the tax hike debate as the ruling party hopes to bring the bill up for a vote in the Lower House in early June before the Diet session ends.
A source close to Ozawa indicated the meeting, even if it takes place, would bear little fruit as his position will "remain apart" from Noda's.
The prime minister is staking his political career on the tax hike, while Ozawa believes the increase would renege on the DPJ's 2009 no-tax-hike campaign pledge.
