The Yomiuri Shimbun
By The Yomiuri Shimbun
Following his Liberal Democratic Party’s resounding victory in Sunday’s House of Councillors election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will take on challenges at home and abroad, the crux of which is to push through additional measures to boost the nation’s economy during the extraordinary Diet session in autumn.
Abe also plans to seek ways to improve Japan’s relations with China and South Korea, which have severely deteriorated over territorial issues.
Faced with criticism from the business community for failing to incorporate major deregulation measures in the government’s economic growth strategy unveiled in June, Abe is gearing up efforts to compile additional measures ahead of the extraordinary Diet session.
Among the key measures he wants to include in the government’s bill, tentatively called a “bill to strengthen industrial competitiveness,” are tax breaks for investment. Abe hopes to see Diet passage of the bill as early as possible.
“First and foremost, we’ll regain a powerful [Japanese] economy,” Abe said on a NTV program Sunday night. “I’d like to concentrate on that point.”
The government has to make crucial decisions on whether the nation should raise the consumption tax rate next year as scheduled, as well as on Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
A set of laws related to integrated reform of the social security and tax system enacted last year stipulates the consumption tax rate be raised to 8 percent in April 2014 and to 10 percent in October 2015. But the tax hikes are conditional, as the laws have a clause requiring the government not to raise the indirect tax if the nation’s economy is not performing strongly enough.
The prime minister is to make a final decision on the tax hike by the end of October, after studying various economic indexes. During election campaigning, Abe indicated that not raising the tax for a while was an option. “We’d get nothing out of it if [the 8 percent tax rate] had adverse effects on the economy, resulting in a drop in the overall tax revenue,” Abe said. Some of Abe’s economic advisers are calling on him to defer the tax hikes, while Finance Ministry and other officials are concerned that Japan’s international credibility would be impaired if it did not raise the consumption tax.
Meanwhile, Japan is scheduled to participate for the first time on Tuesday in TPP negotiations being held among 11 nations in Malaysia. Negotiations over the TPP accord are in a final phase as the participants hope to conclude a deal this year. Since the inauguration of the second Abe Cabinet last year, Japan has not held a summit meeting with China or South Korea. Abe is taking a wait-and-see stance on relations with the two neighbors, as he apparently sees no need to hold such talks with Chinese and South Korea leaders if it requires him to back down on territorial issues.
China is insisting the two nations must “shelve” the issue of the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture before Beijing agrees to hold a summit meeting.
“It’s wrong to assert, ‘We won’t talk to you unless you accept conditions,’ “ Abe said on the NTV program. “Japan is leaving the door open for dialogue. I hope China will respond to it.”
Meanwhile, Abe has engaged in a diplomatic strategy to cooperate with nations sharing democratic and other values with Japan, as a way to check China. The prime minister plans to visit the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore later this month. In contrast, Japan held foreign ministerial talks with South Korea on July 1, the first such meeting since bilateral relations deteriorated last year over the Takeshima islands and differing historical perceptions. There have recently been high-level contacts between the two governments.
The prime minister wants to avoid “unnecessary friction” with South Korea, according to one of his aides. Abe has announced that he would abide by a 1995 statement issued by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama that apologized for Japan’s invasion and 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Reviewing the government’s constitutional interpretation of the right to collective defense will be one of the top issues on Abe’s security agenda.
The government has maintained the stance that Japan has the right to collective defense, but cannot exercise that right. A government panel discussing the issue is expected to urge the prime minister to change the interpretation so that Japan can exercise the right to collective defense in a report it plans to release this autumn.
But some skeptical government officials say a change in the government’s interpretation of the Constitution should be done more cautiously.
More than 162 lawmakers in the upper house now support constitutional revision, exceeding two-thirds of the chamber’s membership.
Article 96 of the Constitution states that any initiative to amend the top law must be supported by at least two-thirds of the members of each house of the Diet. Upper house lawmakers supporting constitutional revision include members of the Liberal Democratic Party, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), Your Party and New Komeito, as well as two lawmakers whose seats were not contested. Komeito aims to add new provisions to the supreme law.
The LDP and Komeito hold more than two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives.
WP-BLOOMBERG
By The Yomiuri Shimbun
Following his Liberal Democratic Party’s resounding victory in Sunday’s House of Councillors election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will take on challenges at home and abroad, the crux of which is to push through additional measures to boost the nation’s economy during the extraordinary Diet session in autumn.
Abe also plans to seek ways to improve Japan’s relations with China and South Korea, which have severely deteriorated over territorial issues.
Faced with criticism from the business community for failing to incorporate major deregulation measures in the government’s economic growth strategy unveiled in June, Abe is gearing up efforts to compile additional measures ahead of the extraordinary Diet session.
Among the key measures he wants to include in the government’s bill, tentatively called a “bill to strengthen industrial competitiveness,” are tax breaks for investment. Abe hopes to see Diet passage of the bill as early as possible.
“First and foremost, we’ll regain a powerful [Japanese] economy,” Abe said on a NTV program Sunday night. “I’d like to concentrate on that point.”
The government has to make crucial decisions on whether the nation should raise the consumption tax rate next year as scheduled, as well as on Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
A set of laws related to integrated reform of the social security and tax system enacted last year stipulates the consumption tax rate be raised to 8 percent in April 2014 and to 10 percent in October 2015. But the tax hikes are conditional, as the laws have a clause requiring the government not to raise the indirect tax if the nation’s economy is not performing strongly enough.
The prime minister is to make a final decision on the tax hike by the end of October, after studying various economic indexes. During election campaigning, Abe indicated that not raising the tax for a while was an option. “We’d get nothing out of it if [the 8 percent tax rate] had adverse effects on the economy, resulting in a drop in the overall tax revenue,” Abe said. Some of Abe’s economic advisers are calling on him to defer the tax hikes, while Finance Ministry and other officials are concerned that Japan’s international credibility would be impaired if it did not raise the consumption tax.
Meanwhile, Japan is scheduled to participate for the first time on Tuesday in TPP negotiations being held among 11 nations in Malaysia. Negotiations over the TPP accord are in a final phase as the participants hope to conclude a deal this year. Since the inauguration of the second Abe Cabinet last year, Japan has not held a summit meeting with China or South Korea. Abe is taking a wait-and-see stance on relations with the two neighbors, as he apparently sees no need to hold such talks with Chinese and South Korea leaders if it requires him to back down on territorial issues.
China is insisting the two nations must “shelve” the issue of the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture before Beijing agrees to hold a summit meeting.
“It’s wrong to assert, ‘We won’t talk to you unless you accept conditions,’ “ Abe said on the NTV program. “Japan is leaving the door open for dialogue. I hope China will respond to it.”
Meanwhile, Abe has engaged in a diplomatic strategy to cooperate with nations sharing democratic and other values with Japan, as a way to check China. The prime minister plans to visit the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore later this month. In contrast, Japan held foreign ministerial talks with South Korea on July 1, the first such meeting since bilateral relations deteriorated last year over the Takeshima islands and differing historical perceptions. There have recently been high-level contacts between the two governments.
The prime minister wants to avoid “unnecessary friction” with South Korea, according to one of his aides. Abe has announced that he would abide by a 1995 statement issued by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama that apologized for Japan’s invasion and 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Reviewing the government’s constitutional interpretation of the right to collective defense will be one of the top issues on Abe’s security agenda.
The government has maintained the stance that Japan has the right to collective defense, but cannot exercise that right. A government panel discussing the issue is expected to urge the prime minister to change the interpretation so that Japan can exercise the right to collective defense in a report it plans to release this autumn.
But some skeptical government officials say a change in the government’s interpretation of the Constitution should be done more cautiously.
More than 162 lawmakers in the upper house now support constitutional revision, exceeding two-thirds of the chamber’s membership.
Article 96 of the Constitution states that any initiative to amend the top law must be supported by at least two-thirds of the members of each house of the Diet. Upper house lawmakers supporting constitutional revision include members of the Liberal Democratic Party, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), Your Party and New Komeito, as well as two lawmakers whose seats were not contested. Komeito aims to add new provisions to the supreme law.
The LDP and Komeito hold more than two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives.
WP-BLOOMBERG
