On June 1, 2016, DP President Katsuya Okada made the following statement.
Today, Prime Minister Abe announced that the consumption tax increase would once again be postponed. This is a clear infringement of his promise to the electorate and he should have announced his resignation as Prime Minister at today’s press conference.
The Prime Minister gave three prevarications as reasons for the further postponement: that “the world economy is facing a crisis”, “that view is shared by the G7 leaders” and “Abenomics is succeeding”. As the Prime Minister of the nation he should be ashamed of repeatedly prevaricating on a topic so important to our nation’s politics. He is making himself the laughingstock of the international community. He should honestly acknowledge that the failure of Abenomics is the main reason why he has been unable to create the necessary environment for the consumption tax increase, and apologise to the Japanese people.
The Prime Minister also said that he would postpone further consumption tax increases until October of 2019. In other words, he declared that he will not decide to further increase the consumption tax during his term of office. At the same time, this means that he is abandoning the fiscal consolidation targets that he promised both at home and abroad. Amongst other issues, this makes uncertain the financing of increases in child-rearing assistance provisions which the Prime Minister said would be implemented as scheduled, and it underscores the excessive irresponsibility of his political stance.
The lives of the Japanese people have been made extremely difficult by stagnating wages and consumption, and widening inequalities. It is not the world economy that is facing a massive crisis, but the Japanese economy and the lives of the Japanese people. In order to avoid this crisis we must make a fundamental shift in economic policy. The Democratic Party will carefully explain to the people economic policies that are appropriate for a mature society, and that balance growth with the distribution of wealth, and we will make every effort to realise these policies. This will enable us to create more secure lives for our citizens, and more stable growth, as well as to produce the necessary economic conditions for increasing the consumption tax.
The out-of-control behaviour of the Abe Cabinet has gone too far. Accelerating the failed policies of Abenomics will only invite an undesirable result. We need to execute a drastic shift in economic policy. The forthcoming House of Councillors election will be a political match over this issue, one that the Democratic Party is determined to do everything necessary to win.