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Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto made comments about the Democratic Party of Japan's policies on Twitter minutes after his talks with Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara on April 4.
According to Sankei Shimbun, Hashimoto, who has championed Twitter as a way of engaging with the electorate, criticized Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's approach, writing, "It's unbelievable that they're planning to dispense with the vote and increase taxes."
He went on to say that former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, now dubbed the "shadow shogun," was "behaving more logically like a DPJ politician" than Noda.
Hashimoto tweeted that Ozawa is considering making local governments responsible for collecting and raising taxes. Under such a system, for which Hashimoto expressed his support, local areas would no longer receive taxes from national government.
He later wrote, "I don't deny the need to collect more taxes, I just oppose the way this DPJ is going about it."
Further ideas mentioned, included a possible reduction of the number of Diet members, as well as a reduction of individual annual expense budgets, a pay cut for public employees and a revision of the pension system, Sankei reported.
© Japan Today
15 Comments
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sillygirl
just lost all respect for hashimoto:(
smithinjapan
Agreed -- he seems to be quickly pushing his way into the Old Boys group and making friends with all the WRONG people (right for his career, wrong for the future of Japan).
crustpunker
The biggest problem I see with raising taxes in Japan is that taxpayers are not really getting anything substantial out of it EXCEPT paying...more....money into a corrupt system that will continue its endless tailspin of wasteful spending. and high salaries for the elitiest political thieves that "run" the show here
Other countries with high taxes like Sweden (which could be as high as 50-60%) are assured of getting something of value for it later on. Education, free lunch at school etc. As long as there is a government that is actually managing taxes well and providing care and benefits for its citizens, high taxes could be viewed as a good thing. THIS to me is real "group think" and illustrates the idea of everyone being under the same roof. Ironic that Japan is viewed as being this kind of society but in actual fact, there are so many fragmented groups between the have and have nots that this kind of functioning gov/society here in Japan is almost totally improbable.
tmarie
Glad you all are finally seeing him for the snake he is. He is not any different than the old gits running the country now. He's just younger - and for some reason the public seems to thin this makes him different and honest. He isn't. He's aligning himself with racist Ishihara, "Nanking didn't happen" Kawamura and Ozawa. The writing is on the walls friends as to what kind of person he is by this. Add in crybaby Kamei... What a winning "new" party.
hatsoff
Ah, so not a breath of fresh air or a trailblazer at all. Just more of the same. Ozawa, Ishihara and Hashimoto. One more and we have the four horsemen.
GW
JAPAN,
In case your not awake(likely) here we are witnessing a WOLF with its sheep costume a 1/3 to 1/2 on, totally visable, for the future of Japan, if its to have one, I hope most of you are paying attention!
Sadly I doubt it
nath
Good post Crustpunker...
There's a great article on Hashimoto at Spike Japan. It tells you a lot of things about the guy which the mainstrean press is too scared to print.
The old saying that the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree is really applicable to this guy.
oginome
Are you Spike?
GW
Dog
Good call on that, here is the link, quite the read
http://spikejapan.wordpress.com/
philsandoz
Ozawa is a lying, grasping, self-agrandizing thief — so why should we be surprised that an up and coming Japanese politician would idolize him? Hashimoto is simply showing his true colors — no, his true camouflage.
minello7
By Hashimoto making this comment about Ozawa "behaving more logically like a DPJ politician" he is neither praising or idolising Ozawa , he is is just making a personal comment about policies of politicians within the DPJ. He also had a meeting with Ishihara, in Osaka, at the request of Ishihara. Ishihara was trying to get Hashimoto on board a new party, once again, Hashimoto refused. Why does Hashimoto need Ishihara or Ozawa ?? Like him or hate him, he's his own man, working for Osaka , and the people of Osaka seem to like him.
tmarie
the people of Osaka seem to like him. The older, voting population seem to like him. The younger ones, who will have to pick up the pieces, aren't too keen - and I'm hoping that means they'll get off their butts and vote next time!
I also wouldn't state that Hashimoto doesn't like Ishihara. They've been chatting a lot lately. Hashimoto might be smart enough to realise what a git Ishihara is but it brings him press and followers so... He'll keep him close and use his for his own purposes. He's a snake.
Jimizo
Explain how Sweden has any freedom at all. Fox News could tell you all about the poor downtrodden people living in that socialistic dystopia. Don't be ridiculous.