, Columnist
Don’t Reopen the ‘Demon Gate’ Debate in Japan
Tokyo is mulling its consumption tax for the umpteenth time ahead of summer elections. Policymakers need some fresh ideas.
Japan’s policymakers need some fresh ideas.
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/BloombergJapan is facing a changing world of tariffs, artificial intelligence, and a potentially existential threat to its number-one export. Yet its approaching election seems set to be dominated by a rehash of a decades-old debate.
Consumption tax, first introduced in 1989 and raised over the years to its current maximum rate of 10%1, is shaping up to be the major theme of July’s upper house election — a poll that will determine the fate of embattled Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his minority government.