The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, in its economic policy announced Friday, called for providing both tax cuts and benefits.
The medium- to long-term economic policy that serves as a CDP draft campaign pledge for the next House of Representatives election sought the introduction of the combination of tax breaks and benefits while proposing the abolition of the reduced consumption tax rate applied to food and some other items.
But it did not include a goal of lowering the consumption tax rate from 10% to 5% temporarily, which was a campaign pledge of the CDP for the House of Councillors election last year. This is apparently because the CDP hopes to show its stance of underscoring budget discipline, unlike the Japanese Communist Party and Nippon Ishin no Kai in the opposition camp, both of which have vowed to cut the consumption tax rate.