Centrist Party Ready to Join Proposed National Conference

Tokyo, Feb. 1 (Jiji Press)–Centrist Reform Alliance co-head Tetsuo Saito on Sunday pledged the major Japanese opposition party’s participation in a suprapartisan national conference proposed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. “We will actively join” the envisioned conference after the upcoming general election, in order to realize a consumption tax cut and the introduction of a refundable tax credit program, Saito said in a debate program of Japan Broadcasting Corp., or NHK. Takaichi, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has shown a plan to launch the national conference within January. But the launch has been put on hold as the House of Representatives, the powerful lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, was dissolved for the general election, set for Feb. 8. Saito said that his party will actively engage in discussions at the conference to help build consensus. In the TV program, participants, including leaders of political parties, held debates on measures to control inflation and boost economic activities, key issues in the closely watched Lower House election. The Centrist Reform Alliance was established recently by the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, the former coalition partner of the LDP. Saito said that the new opposition party, which aims to reduce the consumption tax rate to zero for food as a permanent measure as part of its pledges for the election, plans to set up a new government fund and use investment returns from state-held assets to cover revenue drops resulting from the tax reduction. Norihisa Tamura, executive acting chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, sounded negative about the new fund plan and said that the party plans to review existing tax break programs, among other options, to generate financial resources for reducing the consumption tax rate for food to zero for a limited period of two years. Tamura appeared in the debate program on behalf of Takaichi, who canceled her participation due to treatment for her hand injury. Hirofumi Yoshimura, leader of the Japan Innovation Party, the current coalition partner of the LDP, criticized the Centrist Reform Alliance’s plan, saying that investment profits cannot be stable financial resources. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]