On May 18, DP President Katsuya Okada faced off with Prime Minister
Abe at Question Time.
Okada
stated, “When dissolving the House of Representatives to call a
general election a year and a half ago, Mr. Prime Minister, you
stated that ‘we will not postpone raising the consumption tax to
10% again’, and promised ‘we will create the economic conditions
for this.’ However, if you have not fulfilled this promise,
then I believe that you should resign your position.” He
added, “If you are going to postpone raising consumption tax again,
then you have an obligation to justify this decision to the
public.”
Okada
went on to explain, “During my time as a member of the ruling
party, I joined Prime Minister Noda in promoting the comprehensive
reform of tax and social security. We should not leave future
generations with a heavy debt burden. At the same time I also
thought it important that we should create a sustainable social
security system.” He added, “However, in view of the fact
that the economy is losing momentum right now, I believe that we
are now in a situation where the consumption tax increase must be
postponed once again.” Okada then made the following four
suggestions to the Prime Minister:
1.
Maintain the goal of bringing Japan’s basic fiscal balance into the
black by 2020. In order to achieve this in time consumption
tax will need to be increased to 10% by April 2019.
2.
Proceed with more concrete administrative reforms. At the
same time, reforms including a prioritization process for public
works projects, and reductions in Diet members’ annual allowances
and civil servants personnel expenses should also be implemented or
it will not be possible to gain public trust.
3.
Implementing policies to enhance social security. Annual
payments of \60,000 to those on low incomes, and assistance for
children and child-rearing should be implemented without delay.
There is no alternative but to fund these for two years by
issuing deficit-covering government bonds.
4. Since
there is now time available, the proposed implementation of reduced
rates of consumption tax should be scrapped, and the discussion of
whether it is most desirable to implement a total aggregate system
or tax credits should be revisited.
Prime
Minister Abe responded, “We will continue to make appropriate
judgements within the framework of our original philosophy, but I
will be happy to hear your suggestions.”
Okada
went on to question how pacifism would fare were the Constitution
to be revised, saying, “In your statement in August of last year,
you, as Prime Minister, said that ‘Japan will continue to firmly
uphold the principle that any disputes must be settled peacefully
and diplomatically based on the respect for the rule of law and not
through the use of force, and to reach out to other countries in
the world to do the same.’ Is that not the pacifist spirit
embodied by Japan’s Constitution? As soon as you permit the
full use of the right to collective self-defense by crossing the
line which states that Japan will not engage in an armed attack in
a conflict overseas, then the pacifism of the Constitution will be
destroyed.”