Tax Increase Unavoidable After Quake, Japan Lawmakers Say
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A tax increase to finance earthquake reconstruction may be unavoidable considering the nation’s huge debt, two Japanese ruling party officials say, and two-thirds of the public agree the measure may be necessary.
“We can’t avoid raising taxes as the great earthquake may worsen an already dangerous fiscal situation,” Ikkou Nakatsuka, deputy chairman of the tax committee of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said in an interview last week. Separately, Vice Finance Minister Fumihiko Igarashi said today the government may scrap its plan to lower the corporate tax rate, a move the head of the nation’s largest business lobby said he would support.