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Japan to use rosier tax revenue estimates in fiscal plan

17 Comments
By Takashi Umekawa and Leika Kihara

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17 Comments
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Please keep in mind that even elastic can break.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

They can start their cuts by stop giving billions to countries and organizations that don't need the money!

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Japan to use rosier tax revenue estimates in fiscal plan

Sex up your income projections? How sub-prime.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Lipstick on a pig!

7 ( +8 / -1 )

mutton dressed as lamb

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cost cutting is indeed in order, but why do these conservatives always start with social welfare and medicine? And I am not even suggesting that either is beyond reproach, but there are so many useless construction projects still going on in Japan and so much money being flushed down the toilet doing things like replacing two year old computers at schools with brand new ones.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Reminds me of several GOP proposals to use "dynamic scoring."

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

why do these conservatives always start with social welfare and medicine?

Because in Japan they are by far the biggest outlays.

Japan runs a budget deficit of about 40 trillion yen, from its approx 100 trillion yen of annual spending.

Social welfare spending is more than 30 trillion yen of spending, and growing each year.

Sure there are lots of little useless projects that should be shut down. But construction related spending on roads and infrastructure totals something like 5 trillion yen, if I recall correctly.

So Japan could have no public roads at all, and still be 35 trillion yen in the hole.

This is why the social spending is not, and can not be regarded as sacred in Japan.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Gee more window dressing who wudda thunk!

Overall budgets need to be CUT from the get go! Example Ministry XX last you spent JPY1,000 so lets knock 15% off as any ministry can easily do with 15% less, most substantially more could be cut.

So the next fiscal year they would get JPY 850 SIMPLE!!

Start there, your welcome!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Chicken coop is still a chicken coop.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Do cost cuttings on welfare include the wages of nurses and workers there? To me, something that helps people like social welfare seems like it should be the last target of cost cutting.

Having read this article, I think the government should spend money inside Japan. It's a great attempt to support other countries (although the motive of it may be economic one), but it sounds like you're being generous and paying the check when you have formidable debts to repay.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

To me, something that helps people like social welfare seems like it should be the last target of cost cutting.

No one is saying that people can't have doctors and nurses.

But should today's working people, struggling to save for their retirements, be forced by the government to pay for the health care of today's rich elderly, who on average can afford to pay for it themselves?

It's a question about not only what is sustainable, but also what is fair. The demographics in Japan skew things very unfairly against the younger people, and ought be reformed on those grounds alone.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

How about cutting a few of the XXX subcommittees peopled by Abe's "friends and relations," the recently announced Minister for the Olympics and staff, the 20 or so "experts" who for a couple of months at taxpayer's expense, convened to decide the wording for the Japanese apology for atrocities committed prior to and during WWII?

Civil service cuts, especially of the do nothing top strata would save money.

Futzing the numbers doesn't fix anything.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

A higher elasticity rate means a country can expect to reap higher tax revenues and makes more progress in restoring its fiscal health from an expansion of economic growth.

Sounds like a plan, but, the government's policies are anti-growth. Unless the government changes course, it's higher tax revenues will be a short-lived phenomenon, or, at best, be meager as business and consumers tighten their budgets. Worse, there could well be a flight of capital, and wealth, out of the country.

Social welfare spending is more than 30 trillion yen of spending, and growing each year.

That's a good point, fxgai, but, there could still be some efforts made in curbing the actual costs associated with social welfare spending, particularly healthcare spending. It's not as if the 30 trillion yen is going directly into the pockets of individuals.

The administration and bureaucracy of the health care system should be heavily auditted for inefficiencies, waste, and (yes) misuse. Costs will continue to spiral if reform, and better administration don't happen.

Let's consider Japanese people do pay very high premiums which are based on their income, not on their healthcare needs or usage like private insurance. The government is in a tough bind here, to be sure. Cutting coverage or hiking premiums would cause more problems than it would solve.

The government ought to look into giving tax breaks to families, and individuals caring for aged individuals in need of care. The costs involved in an aging society don't just include health insurance. There's also transport, accommodation, specialize care, and time.

While certainly not the biggest outlay, cutting back on superfluous construction projects can bring on huge savings to mitigate the cost of social welfare spending. Pork barrel projects and programmes do add up, and have costs not just in terms of cash, but, also opportunity and time.

The government needs to get on a growth oriented track.That means a more liberalized, and open market; a more fair, and reasonable tax code that allows for individuals, families, and business keep more of their earnings for living/business costs, re-investment, savings, etc.

The one smart thing the government can do is not hike taxes again, better still, cut taxes so as to promote consumption, robust investment, and job growth.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

JBinJapan,

The one smart thing the government can do is not hike taxes again, better still, cut taxes so as to promote consumption, robust investment, and job growth.

Yes. That would be a smart plan if on's intentions were toward general prosperity.

With the government's policies being anti-growth and Abe throwing money here and there on hopeless causes, I wonder if prosperity is the intention. The country's debts are huge and rising. Perhaps Mr Abe wants to bankrupt Japan so that it has to borrow money from the IMF and thereby put its neck in the noose and give the hangman the OK to do his thing with the lever.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

All part of Abe's "Beautiful Japan" -- paint lipstick on the pig, every facet, and try to present it to the people of the nation as something other than what it is. In any case, what this is saying is that 'tax revenue is better than cutting government spending', which means expect more taxes so that Abe doesn't have to reign in his lunacy and risk hurting the big companies that benefit from his pet projects.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

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