Japan's ruling parties agree on tax hikes for more defense spending

The best-equipped, best-funded, best-trained military forces in the world couldn't t help Japan in the least as long as they were taking their orders from those useless old farts in the LDP. If there's ever a war the best thing the Japanese population could do is get out of the country and leave Dad's Army to it.

Fumio Kishida's envisaged five-year plan from fiscal 2023 to boost defense spending to 43 trillion yen, 

Ever wonder who benefits from these massive military expenditures and what belligerent behavior favors the beneficiaries?

Beneficiaries: Weapons manufacturers, politicians receiving benefits from weapons manufacturers, arms-proliferation advocates, Japan Constitutional revisionists

Belligerent behavior favoring the beneficiaries: Increased North Korea missile activity, increased air and sea exercises by China’s military

If we saw less belligerent behavior, the beneficiaries would suffer. So the big question is, “Are the beneficiaries desirous of the belligerent behavior?”

well.... we all knew that already!

and.... as for "defence" aka "counterstrike capability" aka "enemy base strike capability".... nothing but weasel words (sorry for being weaselist). are we trapped in a 30's history-loop? seems like it.

Finding stable funding sources is a daunting task.

What an odd assertion. Japan's govt routinely issues bonds, nearly half of which are bought by the public sector institution known as the BOJ, and most of the other half by its own institutions and people, while maintaining the lowest interest rates inflation of any industrialized nation. What is so "daunting" about that?

with the country's corporate tax viewed as the most viable target for increase. The 1 trillion yen would be about a fourth of the additional funding needed for the fiscal 2027 defense budget, the sources said.

Japan Inc. has been receiving additional stimulus subsidies since the start of the pandemic in a massive wealth transfer that has not trickled down to the public. Only right the tax burden should fall on them most heavily.

But the LDP already mumbled about sharing and spreading the burden so that remaining three fourth will come from the usual mark of the Japanese worker.

This is very frustrating. There is so much government waste. Why doesn’t the media report on this rather than passively reporting on tax hikes?

Why not slash boondoggle projects and shift that money into a nuclear deterrent instead?

No news - was to be expected.

Take it from the poor - give it to the rich.

Robin Hood vice versa.

And of course the Japanese voters will give again their "go ahead" to the LDP during the next elections.

More taxes? This is why I left Japan. The insurances (health and employment), pension, city, income and sales taxes add up to over 40% of one's salary. You are working half a month for the government.

People can’t use full power in winter without worrying if they can afford it, or even buy groceries, but yes, let’s hike taxes.

IMO the salaries paid these maroons needs to be cut to the point where when they make such idiotic statements,

they too can share in the results.

Corporate tax isn’t a stable source of funding because revenues from the corporate tax fluctuate according to the business cycle—boom and bust. The most stable source of funding is government bonds. Quite a lot of people confuse government debts with household debts and don’t like the idea of issuing new bonds.

Still plenty more seawalls to build!

Why not slash boondoggle projects and shift that money into a nuclear deterrent instead?

It's the Raytheon tax, a massive transfer of money out of the pockets of working people and into the coffers of the US military industrial complex. It's nothing more than a global protection racket run by a gangster country.

NO THANK YOU! Our taxes here are high enough already!

hey Fumio you are a...man...

Disillusioned, man I hear that what you said. Couldn’t agree more but still here! Can’t pull stakes and leave that easily.

Also, don’t the politicians get 1,000,000 yen per month for walking around money?

Seems like an awful lot of money to get for free when you’re already rich.

People actually down voted what you wrote….

My taxes are already too high.

War Mongers beating the drums of war, the economy is already on it's knees and yet they are promoting war.

Most people are more afraid of rising prices and poverty than China or North Korea.

Got an Idea, how about cutting back on bonuses for members of Parliament, State and local governments employees for the year 2027!? that will save the 1 trillion and even more.

KISHIDA knows that Japanese people will never protest. strike = arrest. japanese will suffer in silence...

Double the price of smokes. Allow online gambling and tax that. Lift the tax on pachinko industry. Tax the sex industry more.

by the way, all the Japanese defense money will go to the US pocket. we call it money laundry. japan prints fake money from debt and give it to the US.

Politicians always agree on tax hikes for whatever the reason of the day. Of course, they won't be paying for the spending from their personal finances. Their salaries are also from the public coffers.

Larry Lacky - Disillusioned, man I hear that what you said. Couldn’t agree more but still here! Can’t pull stakes and leave that easily.

You become a financial prisoner. Then, you'll get less than 20% of the money back you put into the pension scam. Cut and run mate! That's what I did and I'm very glad for it. I'm making good money now I'm back in Australia and only paying 25% tax on it, including a superannauation that is an investment and gives positive returns. There is a very dark financial side to living in Japan. You get taxed to the eyeballs and ripped off with any transaction. Renting a property is a good example of being ripped off with 'gift money' and paying an extra month's rent for admin fees when you renew your lease. They do the same when you rent a car parking space. Then there's the telcos ripping people off blindly. There are too many rip offs in Japan.

If the LDP want a war tax we can retaliate with a peace "tax." Cut luxury consumer spending and don't have children.

Interesting to see people a lot less adamant about the money spent on defense when they realize where it is going to come from. This is still only a trillion yen, they need to find another 3 trillion or so from somewhere. Sales tax next?

Not a penny more.

You know how the G7 recently agreed to put an oil price cap of $60 a barrel on Russian oil? Well, the citizens of Japan should put a cap on the amount of tax they pay to the trough-feeders in Kasumigaseki.

Greedy government. Idiots

Disillusioned,

yeah I know and just paid the pension yesterday and after that got the evil eye from a senior citizen because I wasn’t wearing my mask outside walking to the station!

And yet still no pay rises, just more taking of what little people have left. Instead of being ashamed of themselves they are proud, just like my grandfather. Yep Japanese people thinking the same thing except their grandparents were half naked and starving.

Surprise, surprise. That runs astonishingly quickly, smoothly and one-voiced, in contrary to needed inflation price caps and wage raises. Don’t expect applause.

Japan does not need to spend on military initiatives.....this is like throwing more money into a Toyota to supe it up while other super military powers have Ferarri's. At the end of the day it is a waste of money.

Instead the LDP muppets should focus on allocating funds and resources to tackle inflation, stop spending on unnecessary public work projects which are done to secure budgets thru "Dango" bid rigging. Focus on nursery and elderly care and get on with clamping down on recent abuses which is horrific....e.g. the 3 idiot teachers abusing young school children and the idiot head of the school who looks like an unkempt unclean fuketsu oyaji who all btw were called out in international news coverage (The Guardian and others) so they are done and good riddens to them, you are all blacklisted now :)

And raising taxes??? What!!! Another suggestion to the muppets in Japanese government, stop spending taxpayer money on very exclusive dinners in Akasaka. Agree with many of the other comments posted that the thought of raising taxes to pump military spending is absurd!!! a reflection of the Japanese officials considering it....and I am Japanese and American when I say this....

It's the Raytheon tax, a massive transfer of money out of the pockets of working people and into the coffers of the US military industrial complex. It's nothing more than a global protection racket run by a gangster country.

Unfortunately, this is not only happening here in Japan. Apart from the fact that a military buildup is increasing the likelihood of war, the increased money transfer to US is trashing the global economy, which also increases the likelihood of war. This is not going to end well...

Agree with the above comments on current taxes in Japan, income tax, Citizen tax, medical insurance, company registration tax, car tax all add up for me to about 55% of my income. And thats before you pay taxes in things like fuel and groceries with consumption tax. I like Japan but will not be staying here any longer than absolute necessary. This is why Japans population is aging, all the young people are leaving Japan when they finish their education to go abroad.

KISHIDA knows that Japanese people will never protest. strike = arrest. japanese will suffer in silence...

That may be true, but I saw the hundreds, maybe thousands of people protesting against Abe-san's ceremony and those who marched were exploited by the media, literally hand picked the most deranged looking protester to represent them on the media and now the average person is reluctant to go and protest thinking that if they do that, they would look crazy.

Double the price of smokes. Allow online gambling and tax that. Lift the tax on pachinko industry. Tax the sex industry more.

Tax the unification church and all those other "churches"

Got an Idea, how about cutting back on bonuses for members of Parliament, State and local governments employees for the year 2027!? that will save the 1 trillion and even more.

My thoughts exactly

Best places to tax without damaging the economy:

Wealth tax

Stock buyback tax

Securities transaction tax for high-frequency traders (tax the selling of stocks and ETFs by day-trading, economic parasites)

Tax the business and the business will react. Likely, they won’t increase salaries. Spending goes down and the government loses tax in other areas.

The government are on a hiding to nothing on this fiscal roundabout.

It will get harder for the general workers. Bunker down everyone!

It’s in reality balancing out, like everything else. If there are still threats and defense needs, which demand higher taxes, then the other problems, like in society or climate change are still low, whatever they say otherwise. Because if those were the bigger problems, than everyone would peacefully cooperate at the climate front and then we have the much higher taxes put on us from there. It’s balancing out, not more not less, and in sum it doesn’t save us at all from higher taxation.

The Japanese have always been serfs and always will be.

After ww2 Japan saw a rise in a middle class, that’s a first for Japan, really upset the upperclass, they have to tax more is just their way to wipe out the middle class, and see once again the population knee deep in the mud where they belong, while wearing white gloves they show they love them from an elevated position.on top of a van? It’s all so wrong.

It’s a joke!

They are “going to raise taxes”…. but not next year… so what they actually mean is the BOJ is going to keep buying debt and we can enjoy inflation as a result.

They suggest though that corporate tax rate hikes are most probable… but as someone else pointed out, corporate tax revenues fluctuate with the economic cycle. Great source of revenues for the national defense!

In the first place, if you already are imposing high tax rates, and then you hike those tax rates even further, it does not mean you will see increased revenues that naive math might suggest. Because hiking tax rates can negatively impact economic behavior. We all know this, hence the term “sin taxes” - taxes discourage the activity which is taxed.

And Japan already has just about the highest corporate tax rate in the OECD - besides the above, corporates can move their activities offshore more easily than the poor pauper people that live here. That’ll not help the economy, where there is already little natural positive pressure for wage growth.

The leadership committee has it all wrong.

Japan needs to encourage growth.

Hiking already high tax rates will not bring in the extra revenues desired.

It means more debt, more money printing, and further depreciation of the collapsed yen.

Overall spending must be cut, and pro-growth reforms enacted.

We taxpayers will respond in kind. We will buy only what we and nothing more. We will not let babies be born until we have a guaranteed prosperous future for them. We will do all we can to get the LDP out power.

Tax the sex industry more.

There is no legal sex industry in Japan and before you can tax it, you have to legalize it, and regulate it, which I am 100% for in the first place. Japan would become a magnet for travelers, and make a killing!

Wallace,do you expect the US taxpayers to pay for your protection,we are not threatened from imminent invasion,but by domestic crazies

Yrral

Japan pays the US a pile of money to host their military bases here. Your business interests in the region need protection which is the real reason you are here.

The US spends about $850 billion a year on defense but only about $25 billion for oversea bases for 750 bases.

The more capable a country is of self-defense, the less likely that it will need to defend itself. While Xi and Putin are both in expansionist phases of their dictatorships, they are not suicidal.

diagonalslipToday  07:13 am JST

well.... we all knew that already!

and.... as for "defence" aka "counterstrike capability" aka "enemy base strike capability".... nothing but weasel words (sorry for being weaselist). are we trapped in a 30's history-loop? seems like it.

1930s huh? Does Japan have an Army Minister and a Navy Minister on their Cabinet dictatating national policy? Is there a military police - Kempeitai running around persecuting liberals and communists? Is Japan actively engaging in offensive military activity in other countries? Is Japan utilizing Gunboat Diplomacy in it's diplomatic and terriorial disputes? Is the Emperor considered a living God? You have no idea what you're talking about.

Wallace,I think the US should shrink it budget,the military has trillion of military equipment it cannot account for, Russia turn out to be a paper tiger,we should bring all American home,and let people fend for themselves,if they do not hold the value of liberty, equality and justice for all in their country

Wallace,China is the US only business interest

They've already possessed the first class equipment, like f35, Aegis destroyers, etc which few countries can afford. However they're lacking enough ammo, drones, or many of practical stuff. I guess they're bad at selecting weapons and assigning the budget, plus have to purchase American products.

@Yubaru

I have the slightly dubious task of helping an acquaintance of mine find one of those establishments (today) that provide services that are ‘illegal.’

However, the number and large space that it is occupied by these service providers would suggest that 1.the amount of business is high. 2. tax is being paid.

How these businesses are being registered and allowed to conduct their activities is surely not a secret with the local police, city office and national government.