6 Comments

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  eastokyo at 07:35 AM JST - 29th March

  Down with the 暫定税率.

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  flammenwerfer at 08:03 AM JST - 30th March

  Hope the price of petrol falls too....

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  Shumatsu_Samurai at 07:19 PM JST - 30th March

  I don't get why the DPJ are so eager to have the tax killed off this year. Fukuda said he'd link it to the general budget next year onwards - makes sense given the local budgets have already been sorted out and need to be fulfilled for this year.

  Or is the Opposition trying to engineer some sort of trouble so they can then push for an early election? Hardly the actions of a mature party ready for government - throw a monkey wrench in the works to claim the engineer isn't up to the job!

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  Altria at 10:07 AM JST - 31st March

  Whatever DPJ's reasons for opposing it, they're doing the right thing.

  No more roads to nowhere and backroom bribes. Reduced tax will also give the economy a much-needed kick in the pants.

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  Hikozaemon at 10:11 AM JST - 31st March

  Shumatsu Samurai - the DPJ is eager to kill the tax because it has been a campaign promise of the DPJ for 10 years now, but only now do they have the ability to implement it. Is it more immature that the opposition is trying to keep a promise to the people that elected it, or that the LDP has used this "temporary tax" for decades now as a piggy bank for corrupt rural LDP members to have roads built by construction companies linked to organized crime that use the profits from unnecessary public works as kickbacks for the electoral campaigns of the candidates?

  The elimination of this road tax fund is a step that makes life easier for the vast majority of road users that don't benefit in any way from how this tax is used, and to ending the LDP's grip on rural electoral constituencies by inhibiting their ability to bribe local companies. And even if it has the added benefit of causing "trouble" to spark an early election, how would that be any different to the LDP and their friends in the bureaucracy doing exactly the same thing in 1995 in those three months that they were out of power.

  This tax is in and of itself a sign of the immaturity and incompetence of the LDP (and Soka Gakkai), and I am loving watching them getting beat up over it. Frankly, I think that the DPJ will be happy just to let this continue, and have Fukuda and the LDP look worse and worse as time goes on, rather than actually have to do the more difficult task of running government.

  Peace

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  Shumatsu_Samurai at 09:35 PM JST - 31st March

  Hiko

  They can't keep their promise by blocking the bill - they can only delay it for two months. That's the point.

  They've said they'd be satisfied with the money going into the central pot (if I remember correctly), which Fukuda promised would happen from next year onwards. If the DPJ can co-operate they can get that written in to a bill to ensure it automatically happens. However, if they sulk for another month or so then Fukuda can drop the offer. Do they DPJ want to make a political statement, or do they want to help out the electorate?

  Regardless of the merits of how the taxes are currently spent, construction companies (oddly enough) do hire workers and if they've already budgeted for work then they'll have to lay people off if contracts are broken. Plus local governments might be sued for breach of promise/have to cut budgets elsewhere to ensure that doesn't happen.

  About 1995, that was over a decade ago. Why should Fukuda's administration be punished when he wasn't PM then? Or do you think both the LDP and DPJ should keep stabbing each other in the back when able? When will the LDP take revenge for the events of the last few months? And when will the DPJ do the same?

  You have to draw the line somewhere and say "ok, let's not do this anymore".

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