Noda Asks Japan to Support Tax Increase to Fund Quake Rebuilding

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said tax increases are needed to pay for the recovery from the March earthquake without adding to the country’s debt burden.

Noda used a speech today in parliament to push his plan to temporarily raise taxes by 11.2 trillion yen ($148 billion) and sell government shares in Japan Tobacco Inc. and Japan Post Holdings Co. to rebuild from the disaster. With government debt twice the size of gross domestic product, Japan can’t ignore the European financial crisis, he said.