Regarding the June 28 Kyodo article "Tax hike vote pleases big business": Of course, big business leaders are pleased, as the higher consumption tax will generate more money for them — at the expense of the people, who incidentally will not only pay more in taxes, but also pay more for pension premiums. And at the same time, they will lose the child-raising allowance.
So, people whose salaries are flatlined or decreasing will save more and spend less and, at the same time, will be even less inclined to have children. Why should they?
Why choose the very expensive option of children who will have to pay more themselves for the graying population mushroom cloud and then almost certainly receive nothing themselves when they retire, as the system will have collapsed long before that?
Japan seems determined to commit a long, slow economic and social suicide. Nobody in power seems to know/care about this They are, after all, self-serving, and nobody else can/will do anything about this.
The safest bet? Stay single, don't have kids, and enjoy the last lingering vapors of prosperity before we are all crushed in the vortex. At least this is not a gun-happy society.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.