The Democratic Party of Japan together with the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito on Tuesday passed through the Lower House bills for the so-called unified reform of the tax and social security systems. In the voting for a bill to raise the consumption tax — a pet idea of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda — 57 DPJ members, including former DPJ chief Ichiro Ozawa and former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, voted "no" and 16 other DPJ members refrained from voting or were absent (one of them sick).
The passage of the bills is problematic as both a political process and an economic policy. Many voters who voted for the DPJ in the 2009 Lower House election will regard the consumption tax raise plan a betrayal. The DPJ's election manifesto had made it clear that the party would reallocate the budget to create funds for promised measures and refrained from mentioning any plan to raise taxes. On the basis of the manifesto, a majority of voters voted for the party, believing that it would end rule by unelected bureaucrats and eliminate waste in government. They hoped for a departure from the old LDP type of politics. But what happened on Monday was nothing other than collusion between the DPJ and the LDP.
Mr. Noda says that the bills are for the sake of reform. But because of his obsession with the consumption tax hike, he postponed the dismantling of intrenched bureaucratic interests and eliminating government waste. Once the tax increase is ensured, the bureaucracy will continue business as usual without economizing or carrying out reform.