Consumption tax raise hit prospects
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In Japan, a salaried person's income is mainly subject to two factors. First, whether one is employed formally and second, whether one works in a big enterprise or not.
The former decides whether he/she will have a stable salary and the latter determines the amount of bonuses and welfare. Official data in 2006 showed that there were 70 million Japanese with annual incomes lower than 4 million yen, accounting for 58.3 percent of the total population in Japan. This is why Japanese voters were against the consumption tax or any increases to the tax rate.
Your Party has clearly rejected the idea of joining the government, even as it has not ruled out voting in favor of such policies as the civil service reform law.
There is still uncertainty whether the Social Democratic Party, which is supported by the trade unions, will return to the coalition government or not, and whether the Buddhist-backed New Komeito will join the government.
The future of the LDP and the Japanese Communist Party is also cause for concern.
Ahead of the DPJ delegation level elections in September and a possible Cabinet reshuffle, Naoto Kan needs to communicate and cooperate with Ichiro Ozawa, the most powerful figure in the DPJ, and consider the intentions of the trade unions, DPJ's largest support group.
As the minority party in the Upper House, it is imperative for Kan to adopt a more modest attitude, listen to the voice of the nation, strengthen integration and solidarity in the party, and formulate and implement more internal and external policies.
A relatively stable administrative environment relies on Kan's sincerity and down-to-earth attitude.
After taking office, Kan has advocated pragmatism in policies, focusing on how to cope with various problems in domestic and foreign affairs and exerting himself in the pursuit of the policy objective of "powerful economy, strong public finance and sound social security".
To this end, it is hoped that Kan will play a better role in enhancing China-Japan strategic and reciprocal relations in the fields of trade and finance, and will properly handle problems left over from the past and establish close regional cooperation, especially in non-traditional security areas including food security and infectious diseases prevention and treatment.
The author is a professor with the Peking Union Medical College, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
