LDP eyes shifting 1% of income tax payments for 'defense tax'

How about just saying NO to the US demands for vassal states to pay (waste) 2% of GDP on US weaponry?

Just issue bonds, you dummies. The core problems of the Japanese economy are weak private demand and low real wages. Hiking income tax is the last thing the government should be doing.

Just issue bonds, you dummies

Report out this weak that the BoJ is concerned that there are so many struggling (LOL) corporations who won't be able to cope when their bonds holdings loses value if interest rate was to head up.

So as I see it, the gravy train that is easy money lending to the Japanese government for no risk is ending, ie the stage that was borrow money from the BoJ, lend to government, take no risk, easy money, is well, over.

...OR is it that instead of buying bonds at home, they are buying bonds overseas (USA) because of the higher yields?

We knew from before what was the LDP right wing agenda and yet the people of this land kept voting them. Now we are all paying the consequences.

With the plan, the amount allocated for recovery in disaster-hit areas in northeastern Japan would be lowered, and the rest would be earmarked for a significantly larger defense budget advocated by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Further proof that the "people" dont matter! There is already a 2.1% tax for reconstruction that is supposedly going to end in 2037, but because of this allocation of 1% I can foresee the tax becoming permanent.

We knew from before what was the LDP right wing agenda and yet the people of this land kept voting them. Now we are all paying the consequences.

Pray tell when has the LDP never had a "right wing agenda?" Since it's inception in 1955 it has ALWAYS had a right wing agenda!

The people keep voting them in because the alternative is......................

How has Kishida and the rest reined in their own profligate spending and expenses?

Kishida needs intensive lessons on video conferencing otherwise the days of taking two jet planes abroad will never stop

@Zoroto

Absolutely disgusting.

Exactly! The reconstruction tax was supposed to be a temporary tax to address a sudden, dire need by the Tohoku area. Now, our politicians are diverting it to military hardware. Unacceptable!

The LDP panel affirmed a draft government plan to cut by half an additional 2.1 percent imposed on income tax payments to aid the reconstruction of areas affected by a massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami, channeling some 200 billion yen a year to the new tax.

Ten years of crony projects and denying victims recompense while bailing out TEPCO

Time to shift the tax money to defense!

LDP oligarchic logic.

The people keep voting them in because the alternative is......................

Brother, I'd happily take the Communist Party or the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. At present, I'm down with ANY other party besides the LDP.

@Aly Rustom spot on !

Personally not a Communist but the Japanese version is compelling, they actually have stated policies that improve quality of life. At the same time balancing business, under the LDP it’s business first and that’s their focus. Life quality is not even thought about. Make a quantum leap in life quality first, then you have an actual thing to defend, rather than a small group of families getting tax payers money for the purpose of getting more tax payers money.

The people keep voting them in because the alternative is......................

Brother, I'd happily take the Communist Party or the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. At present, I'm down with ANY other party besides the LDP.

Aly I totally agree with you.

There are alternatives and the Minushuto CDP was a good one.

These clowns forget, buying military hardware means nothing unless you've got the backbone and resolve to use it, none of which the LDP have. So, are the people of Japan going to continue letting these idiots run the country? Vote LDP, you get LDP...

Motegi is the same buffoon who callously picked a fight with a foreign female reporter when she asked about immigrants being able to return to the country during the early days of Covid. Why am I not surprised to see his name come up in a similar possible-misquote flap?

The fact that the government decides to finance this increase of defense spending through tax rather than bonds, which would be much easier politically, means that worries about public finances are starting to be real. Like in other countries we are reaching the end of free money. Continuing to issue bonds like there is no tomorrow in an inflationary environment is dangerous. Inflation is equivalent to a tax. No difference. So, the people will suffer either through direct tax increase or indirectly through inflation. Pretty bleak.

Taxpayers should unite to claw back their forced contributions to the LDP government coffers - they have more to lose than 1% (of money wasted by government officials who care not a fig for the plight of cash-strapped people crushed by bills).

Kishida just explains that the Japanese people need to work to for US military business.

A countries’ defense widely based on tobacco smokers and their addiction, unbelievable, such a senseless politics and discrimination against a specific group in population.

Tobacco is 2 to 3 times cheaper in Japan than other developed countries and the increase planned is rather limited. Cigarettes will still be cheap in Japan. Not denying that it is hard to get rid of an addiction though.

With the plan, the amount allocated for recovery in disaster-hit areas in northeastern Japan would be lowered.

And there it is. With the Olympics gone and the swag pocketed, the political/ emotional blackmail value of the disaster survivors is a spent force, so let them do what they can with less money. They were useful for 11 years, but now they're on their own.

The rest of us will be paying Disaster Recovery Tax for the rest of our lives, of course, but the LDP now no longer even pretend it's being used for rebuilding.

What a nest of vipers. Japanese voters, is this really the best you can do?

There are alternatives and the Minushuto CDP was a good one.

Please dig a bit deeper, and while their may be alternatives, the problem is that there are not enough members throughout the country to make a real difference.

The local prefectures need new blood from other parties.

I can already see from other reports that Kishida is getting criticized again. He will walk back this policy like so many others. After all is said and done he might go down as a less effective leader than Suga which is pretty crazy to think about.

Do not give the money to the US!

So laf - so many gaijin in Japan who think geopolitical realities can be escaped with a little online outrage.

Increasing defense spending = good (given the bad neighborhood)

TAXING the people at some of the highest regressive rates in the world forever is killing what is left of the economy. My visits every couple years Japan is obviously just poorer and poorer - it is so sad.

Instead - spend less somewhere else or just print that Yen. They do it all the time for lesser reasons.

Good Plan, and while at it start taxing all religious groups, the so called non profit scammers, and so on.

Every citizen should be paying his or her share, NO EXCEPTONS.

a new "defense tax"

At least he is being honest about labeling this a "defense tax" (though, it would be even more honest to call it "US tax"). So, Japan is currently running the exact same policy as North Korea: direct all resources at building up the military, at the expense of the welfare of the nation. Even if Japan spent 99% of GDP, it would still not be enough to protect this small island. If you can't win the war, don't fight it! Step aside, and let the others play it out. And definitely don't BUY weapons. Now is the timing to produce and SELL weapons (which I am personally against, but at least it would not bankrupt the nation).

This government duty is to defend its people.

Threats with menaces, the warnings, bullying from the Governments Russia, China, North Korea must warrant a response.

The costs must not amount to sleight of hand accounting trickery,

The taxpayer must be provided with a detailed transparent cost analysis

Arm the people, the ones who are facing invasion, I'm sure they'll take care of corruption real quick.

I had already decided to move my company to Singapore as from December because of the criminal organisation Dentsu stealing my company’s business and revenue unpunished.

also 7 years( with 6 years of profit and a breakeven in 2020) and still I get only a 1 year business visa again.

the tax raise is a sign it was the right decision. Japans corporate tax will next year be 10 % higher than South Korea and 9 % higher than Taiwan.

add to that completely incompetent politicians, more nationalism, protectionism and racism and the decision to leave is more than sufficiently motivated.

watching whether the government can spell out specific tax rates and the timing of raising taxes 

This is too imprecise.

“Raising taxes”?

If they raise tobacco tax rates enough, that will discourage smoking, and could reduce tax revenues.

Likewise, corporate tax rate increases disincentives business activity in the jurisdiction, and could reduce tax revenues.

So what is the government’s aim?

Here, it is to increase tax revenues.

the government plans to secure an additional 1.1 trillion yen in fiscal 2027 on an annual basis, including 700-800 billion yen through higher corporate taxes and around 200 billion yen, respectively, from the tobacco and new defense taxes.

This LDP tax system research committee seem confused, and believe that they can hike rates, and secure more revenue. But why do they think tax rate hikes won’t reduce revenues? Even if they do increase tobacco and corporate tax revenues, tobacco consumers for example will have less to spend on other things, impacting consumption tax revenues negatively. Corporate tax is no different although people like to think there is plenty of money to be simply milked from the captive corporations of Japan, which would never think of doing more business offshore...

Japan’s corporate tax rate remains one of the highest in the developed world; pushing it higher seems dopey. Tobacco tax revenues I am not sure, but smokers have been on the decrease…

The reconstruction tax was supposed to be a temporary tax to address a sudden, dire need by the Tohoku area. 

Yep.

I do wonder though, how come it was decided to make that tax last for 25 years? We still have 15 years to go... shouldn’t we reassess the reconstruction needs of effected areas at this point in time, anyway? Of course there are some on the gravy train and they won’t want to get off, but this is a matter for all tax payers across the country to have a day in. Do folks in Okinawa’s islands near Taiwan feel good with paying tax for Tohoku while China rattles the sabres down there?

In the first place, this reconstruction tax seems extremely questionable due to its lengthy duration. It was always just a matter of time until it was diverted to other purposes as a result.

Personally I am fine with helping reconstruct the lives of disaster victims, but it’s been 11 years already. If we have failed to reconstruct their lives by this time, we have failed them!

One has to remember Japan is the most disaster prone nation on earth too, so similar funds are likely to be needed for new disasters before long. Not a nice thing to think about, but this is reality in Japan.

Double/Triple the taxation upon Cigarettes, Alcohol and Clamp down on Pachinko Parlors' evasion of tax.

@Jozef,

I had already decided to move my company to Singapore 

the tax raise is a sign it was the right decision. 

In the short to medium term, I think you are dead right.

Japan needs to make some massive changes to become an attractive business destination again. Change will come eventually, I am sure, but there is an opportunity cost in the meantime that can’t be ignored.

Policy makers seem utterly clueless, so really quite a political earthquake needs to be instigated be something for it to change. Not just the policy makers though. The Japanese populace is much to blame for not taking power into their own hands.

@Zoroto yes look at the current US administration they are not defenseless and they don't have NK, China and Russia breathing down their throats!! Regardless of the administration.

LDP right wing agenda

Warmongering is not right wing, e.g. look at the current US administration.

@Aly Rustom Ok at the present why not go live in a Communist country like China and get locked down, or perhaps NK I am sure that thought would change quickly

The people keep voting them in because the alternative is......................

Brother, I'd happily take the Communist Party or the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. At present, I'm down with ANY other party besides the LDP.

Warmongering is not right wing, e.g. look at the current US administration.

Sure! How could the career politician, Biden, an "institutionalist", member of America's executive elite with a long commensurate record of "warmongering" and, a self-confessed "capitalist" to boot, possibly be rightwing (in a country gaslit by the political right for most of its existence)? Reading the right history books for answers would show that Kishida's knee-jerk tax hike to go fund the further remilitarization of Japan was entirely predictable.

@Aly Rustom Ok at the present why not go live in a Communist country like China

China is not communist any more than the LDP is Liberal and Democratic

and get locked down,

What does that have to do with it?

or perhaps NK I am sure that thought would change quickly

No it wouldn't make me warm up to the LDP. Silly post. Move on.

Warmongering is not right wing, e.g. look at the current US administration.

the current Administration is not warmongering. More BS