Kishida to deliver policy speech as gov't maps out new economic stimulus package

I wonder what PM Kishida is thinking in the photo above as he stares at that lettuce inside the Kiba Ito-Yokodo?

Looks like it's the first time he's ever been in a supermarket. No doubt they'll dole out some one time cash hand outs which will make no meaningful difference. More a pre-election buttering up than a genuine attempt to help those struggling the most.

Now more than ever they should implement a VAT system. Reduce or remove the taxes places on essential items and increase taxes on non-essential/luxury items.

I’m not a big drinker, the odd beer or wine. Found my self in the spirts section at the supermarket, was surprised how cheap the scotch was. Time to tax the luxuries more and reduce the day to day items.

Then zero rate baby/children essentials items.

This guy must be so busy…

If everyday I cosplayed being an engineer, dressed up as an agricultural expert, and now today, he inspects the supermarkets so we can live our lives

Someone should ask him after this photo op, what's the cost of making dinner for a family of four (two elementary school age)?

I would love to see the price of cigarettes and all smoking devices raised a considerable amount, but we all know that Japan Tobacco is owned by the gov't and they don't want to choke that Golden goose. Also, too many ojisans love their whiskey, so that too will not be going up. I guess you could tax other luxury goods, but many of those are being purchased by foreigners who end up not paying the tax, or getting it refunded! It is a real mess.

Lots of men in dark suits looks more that they are attending a funeral than an event to promote sales. None of them are with a shopping cart or a basket. Very sad picture indeed.

MarkX

would love to see the price of cigarettes and all smoking devices raised a considerable amount, but we all know that Japan Tobacco is owned by the gov't and they don't want to choke that Golden goose.

Indeed, the price of cigarettes is 3 to 4 times less than in most other développés countries

After the Liz Truss/lettuce debacle, politicians with low approval ratings should know better than to be photographed near perishable groceries.

This guy has no idea what he's looking, since he never did grocery shopping in his entire life. If he would, he would immediately know that the prices for food and utilities, MORE THAN DOUBLED compared to 5-10 years ago, while the salaries are at the 80's level still.

Is well known that those politicians live in their own world and they are clueless about strugglings of normal people.

I love the photos of people pointing.

これはレタスです

Please make this "economic stimulus" target the people that actually need it: that is, those struggling with day-to-day living costs, and not the big companies that are the LDP's political backers.

The government needs to get a handle on this before Japan ends up like the UK, with millions relying on food banks despite being the world's sixth-biggest economy. But I don't have high expectations for a bunch of silver spoon bocchans who have never lived in the real world.

Another stimulus package? Half a teaspoon of sugar won’t sweeten the whole pie.

I wonder what PM Kishida is thinking in the photo above as he stares at that lettuce inside the Kiba Ito-Yokodo?

I bet he is thinking,I always wondered what a whole lettuce looked like.

Japan already has a massively complicated tax system, riddled with all sorts of loopholes. The people that benefit from this are not the poorer, but the people who understand all the loopholes and have the means to take advantage of them.

Nothing about a greater amount of knowledge, it is about having access to large capital and being able to hire wealth managers, tax specialists to abuse these loopholes placed by the LDP to help their wealthy cronies.

The LDP had previously suggested that Kishida, who has pledged to map out a new economic stimulus package to tackle the negative impact of price hikes by the end of this month,

The stimulus will be to companies, as has been previously floated.

Kishida should have taken this photo op at the boardroom of one of his cronies.

It would be more accurate about where this stimulus package will be going.

He’s thinking I have no idea how much any of these things cost because I haven’t gone shopping for my family in decades , someone does that for me.

The lettuce inside the Kiba Ito-Yokodo look like tomahawks.

Kishida is turning into Kim Jung Un.

He’s taking all these fake pics where he’s pretending to be like “the people.”

Hey Kish! It’s called the inside of a super market! It’s where regular folk buy groceries. Sorry, they can’t all be Ginza steak houses and kyabakuras. But they do magically exist.

Guy in beige suit: as you can see here, this is what vegetables look like before they become a salad

Kishida: :0

What, yet another one? What did Einstein supposedly say regarding the definition of sanity, again?

Reduce or remove the taxes places on essential items and increase taxes on non-essential/luxury items.

You mean, like having higher taxes for beers, than for non-beers?

This is a really bad idea.

All it does is cause distortions in economic behavior as people are incentivized to take actions to minimize the tax they pay.

Keeping the tax system dead simple, with low rates, is the way to go.

Japan already has a massively complicated tax system, riddled with all sorts of loopholes. The people that benefit from this are not the poorer, but the people who understand all the loopholes and have the means to take advantage of them.

The purpose of the tax part of the overall system, is to gather revenues. Those revenues can then be spent on an adequate safety net for the poorer. A person with no job or income doesn’t benefit from fidgeting with the tax system for consumption, because they have no money to spend to begin with.

But, thinking about essential items, owning a house is not strictly essential. People can rent. Owning a home that is going to depreciate in value is a luxury that Japan’s more well-off can afford. Yet the government gives these well-off people big tax deductions if they take out mortgages to fund their purchases.

This is welfare for the well-off that should be eliminated, rather than adding yet more complications.

Eliminate privilege, not increase or add it.

Half a teaspoon of sugar won’t sweeten the whole pie.

Those cute small pies sold here will be well sweetened even with only a quarter of a teaspoon. lol

But the opposition bloc was against the plan, as the schedule would mean there would not be a chance to grill the prime minister over his speech ahead of the voting in national by-elections slated for Sunday

Which seems to be precisely why it is planned this way, the plans are not likely to be well thought, so immediate criticism would spoil the expected effect on recovering even a little popularity.

How about reducing the tax burden for people who make less than 10 million yen a year? Japan is about the only country in the world where taxes will never go down. Scrapping the hopelessly complicated new invoicing system (a thinly disguised tax grab) would be another popular move.

Just look at all those hangers on in that store with him, and they are overpaid by your government out of your taxes. But on the bright side, at least he is in Japan..........but he is probably just dropping by for a quick visit. And that photo, he is looking at that lettuce and wondering what the hell it is. Perhaps someone should tell him about Liz Truss, the ex British lettuce.....whoops sorry, Prime Minister.

You mean, like having higher taxes for beers, than for non-beers?

This is a really bad idea.

All it does is cause distortions in economic behavior as people are incentivized to take actions to minimize the tax they pay.

Lol, no, evidence from countries or provinces that tax inessentials higher says otherwise.

Our Kakyu nenkin on a monthly basis went up ¥625.

We will put it in our savings account and get zero interest.

If you want to do something start by undoing what you have already done with the qualified invoice system, a system that makes things harder for smaller businesses and freelancers and what we get for spending more time on taxes is to pay an extra 10% in taxes.

The poor spend a larger amount of income than the rich do on food.

Neither is it purely economic.

Nutritional balance is part of the mix too.

Japanese food is bulked with noodles and flour increasingly- fresh vegetables and fruit is becoming scarce

LDP regime only benefit economy circles or arms industries from taxpayers money, has no even interest to life of general public who suffered by poverty or infection diseases, and PM's policy is too late and too insufficient.

What Japanese politicians need to do is to deregulate the economy

We don’t need temporary band-aid stimuli!

The industriousness Japanese people will do the rest.

Get tax off food Kishida-that would be a light bulb moment after hanging around the supermarket for a bit eh?

Fumio Kishida looks well at home in the veggie aisle too.All he needs to do is take off his blue tie-perfect!

This government knows only to spend money they don t have .

I wonder what PM Kishida is thinking in the photo above as he stares at that lettuce inside the Kiba Ito-Yokodo?

"It's just a head of lettuce, Taro; how much could it cost? A thousand yen?"

@kurisuposu,

You were on fire, doing fantastic, until

Get tax off food Kishida

Noooo! It’s like you dropped the ball over the try line in a tight rugby World Cup match just there.

Let’s keep tax simple.

Look, even rich people eat food and they eat fine steaks and expensive stuff like that, and therefore pay loads of consumption tax for that privilege. So let’s keep tax on food.

Remember, we are collecting these tax revenues so as to redistribute the proceeds to the needy. If we give the unneedy such tax breaks too, then it defeats the purpose.

Tax is not supposed to be about virtue, it’s about collecting tax revenues.

Virtue comes from home those proceeds are spent, because we collect those proceeds in the first place. Most people don’t need to be recipients of such redistribution, most people can afford to assist the poor and through tax on food is how we can ensure people pay a fair share.

Kishida-kun is desperate to win the next election. It's not that difficult. Forget the patronizing handouts. Japan doesn't need communism -- the majority of people in this country are willing to work for a living (unlike their lazy Western counterparts). Boost the minimum wage to 2,000 yen an hour (more in Tokyo and other major cities) and eliminate taxes for people who don't make that much money. Large companies can shoulder more of the tax burden -- they can afford it.

For the record, I don’t belittle anyone. Call liberals out on hypocrisy, sure.

And my replies to rightist hypocrisy and non sequitur are removed as off topic by the supposedly vernacular speaking mods on the regular.

KISHIDA discovers the supermarket for the first time!!

Kishida to deliver policy speech as gov't maps out new economic stimulus package

Blah blah pledge pledge blah blah.

He’s thinking I have no idea how much any of these things cost because I haven’t gone shopping for my family in decades , someone does that for me.

Taro Aso walked into a supermarket for the first time a number of years back and marveled at how people went shopping. He's NEVER done it. It was like going to the zoo for him. I imagine that's how the Kasumigaseki blue bloods see the people.

Kishida is turning into Kim Jung Un.

He’s taking all these fake pics where he’s pretending to be like “the people.”

Or pretending that he cares or understands inflation.

Hey Kish! It’s called the inside of a super market! It’s where regular folk buy groceries. Sorry, they can’t all be Ginza steak houses and kyabakuras. But they do magically exist.

For him, it's just an outing. Like going to an aquarium.

Another stimulus package? Half a teaspoon of sugar won’t sweeten the whole pie.

Exactly. This is actually a very easy fix. Just spur the economy by reducing the income tax on people who are not wealthy. In fact, halve it. Then continue to drop it until you see a positive effect.

The backbone of every economy is the middle class, and every politician from the LDP since Koizumi has decimated it.

new economic stimulus package

It's not stimulate anything, just another JGovt subsidy.