2026 POLLS: Reiwa Shinsengumi Stands Firm on Seeking Consumption Tax Abolition

Tokyo, Jan. 26 (Jiji Press)–Japanese opposition party Reiwa Shinsengumi will make abolishing the consumption tax a key pillar of its policy pledges for the Feb. 8 election of the House of Representatives, the lower parliamentary chamber, its co-chief Mari Kushibuchi said in a recent interview. “We will fight with a focus on abolishing the consumption tax, which we have been advocating without wavering,” Kushibuchi said. “The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and other parties have suddenly started calling for a consumption tax cut, but they are doing so just for the election,” she said. “The economy has yet to fully recover after (the consumption tax rate) was raised to 10 pct.” “(Reducing the consumption tax) to zero only for food will not be an economic measure to help Japan overcome its 30-year recession,” the co-leader argued. “With a bold move to scrap the tax, we will expand demand, revive the economy and raise wages and pensions.” Kushibuchi said her party will seek to gain as many seats as possible, with an aim to net 18, double the number it won in the previous Lower House election in 2024. “As a grassroots party, we have been built up by volunteers,” she said. “We want to convey to people who do not vote the freshness of a national movement looking to change society.” She criticized Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s decision to dissolve the Lower House for the snap poll, calling it a “lying, self-preserving, greedy dissolution” that went against the prime minister’s pledge to work hard. “Takaichi’s statement, ‘Let the people decide (through an election) whether I should be prime minister,’ signals the start of a dictatorship,” Kushibuchi said. “Parliament is not the place for the prime minister’s self-actualization.” The co-chief said Takaichi’s LDP has not dealt with the issue of member lawmakers’ ties with the controversial religious group Unification Church and that some members of the junior ruling Japan Innovation Party have been found to have evaded paying national health insurance premiums. “It’s a dissolution for the ruling bloc to avoid scrutiny,” she said. On the formation of the Centrist Reform Alliance by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, Kushibuchi argued that established political parties were behind the Japanese economy’s woes. “The CDP’s basic policies have changed significantly (through its merger with Komeito),” she said. “We, as a third force in politics, cannot be involved in any way.” Reiwa Shinsengumi’s leader, Taro Yamamoto, is absent from election efforts due to health problems. Kushibuchi said it became clear just how much Yamamoto had traveled across the country alone to communicate with the public. “We hope it will be an opportunity for party executives to share responsibilities and expand capabilities,” she said. “It may be an election in which Yamamoto’s achievements thus far will be evaluated by the public.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]