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Yomiuri Shimbun file photo Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba
Jiji Press
17:56 JST, January 19, 2025
Tokyo (Jiji Press)—Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Sunday stressed the importance of finding alternative financial resources for a proposed hike in the minimum annual taxable income from the current ¥1.03 million .
“We cannot find an answer unless we discuss how to finance the hike in the threshold,” Ishiba, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said in a television debate program, which was also attended by heads of other political parties.
The LDP-led ruling bloc is talking with the opposition Democratic Party for the People on raising the threshold, in a bid to obtain the DPFP’s cooperation in enacting the government’s draft budget for fiscal 2025, which starts in April.
The LDP and its coalition partner, Komeito, lost their combined House of Representatives majority in the October 2024 general election for the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament.
In the TV program, which took place ahead of the start of this year’s ordinary Diet session Friday, Ishiba touched on the case in which a political organization of an LDP group in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly failed to record revenue from sales of fundraising party tickets in its political fund reports.
“We take this seriously as our party’s problem,” he said.
Noting that he has instructed the party to investigate whether there are similar problems at LDP groups in other prefectural assemblies, Ishiba said, “I think there will be an opportunity within this week for us to give an explanation on the matter.”
On proposals from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and others to introduce a ban on political donations from companies and other organizations, the prime minister said, “It is important to boost transparency (in donations).”
As to this summer’s election for the House of Councillors, Ishiba said that the LDP aims to maintain the ruling pair’s majority in the Upper House including seats that are not contested this time.
Mentioning a proposal for Japan to introduce a dual surname system for married couples, Ishiba said: “We cannot reach an answer unless we hold discussions. We will work on the issue speedily.” Many in the LDP are cautious about the system.
Regarding the possibility of the government revising the fiscal 2025 draft budget, Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito said: “We cannot move forward without the cooperation of opposition parties. (A revision) could be possible.”
The draft budget includes record-high general-account spending of over ¥115 trillion .
CDP chief Yoshihiko Noda said his party expects to seek a revision of the budget bill, pointing out that the national budget remains bloated although the COVID-19 pandemic was over.
On whether his party will submit a no-confidence motion against the Ishiba cabinet at the upcoming ordinary Diet session, Noda said, “It’s not something that should be submitted as a matter of course at the end of a Diet session.. It depends on how many issues needing a vote of no-confidence will emerge.”
Hirofumi Yoshimura, head of opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), said that the party plans to submit to the Diet its own bill to ban corporate donations.
Concerning the dual surname system, Yoshimura said it is “realistic” to make the use of original last names legally effective.
DPFP acting head Motohisa Furukawa said that “we cannot support the budget bill” if the minimum taxable income is raised to only ¥1.23 million , a level proposed by the ruling coalition.
But he added, “We could support the budget if we conclude that our proposal has been accepted.” The DPFP is calling for the annual threshold to be raised to ¥1.78 million .
Japanese Communist Party chief Tomoko Tamura called for an all-out ban on corporate donations, which she claimed have “distorted politics.”
Yasuhiko Funago, deputy head of opposition Reiwa Shinsengumi, proposed the abolition of the consumption tax and distribution of ¥100,000 per person as measures to cushion the impact of rising goods and services prices in the country.
