Japanese Politician Openly Admits, "70% of Japanese Against Sales Tax Hike"

Japanese politician tells the truth on his blog that "70% of the public is against a Sales Tax increase."

Here's a quick translation from the blog of politician Narita Keiji of July 15, 2012:

Outside in the summer heat, it was exhausting. From morning to afternoon, a 100,000 person was rally held in Yoyogi Park. Brings together many have been expected among the climax of the Goodbye Nuclear Power movement. Please hurry and go out to join us.

Later that night, we held a rally to "Stop the Consumption Tax Hike." This is a coordinated action with the public and volunteer councilors that has taken place all over the metropolitan area, today it arrived in Setagaya at the Carrot Tower near Sangenjaya station.

Unfortunatley the weather became bad and strong winds forced us to close the meeting early but still many people showed up to gather flyers about the movement to stop the Consumption Tax increase…. There were many people with questions and anger about the talk of the tax increase.

70% of the population was opposed to the consumption tax hike….

I've mentioned before that I thought surveys of the Japanese public that showed only 58% opposed a Sales Tax increase must be false (or they survey a high percentage of people on the dole)... I haven't met anyone who was positive for any tax increase at all.

Original blog:

ストップ消費税増税　各地で街宣

2012/07/15 23:16 7月１５日日曜日 【国民の７割が反対】　 午前・午後ともに外回り、暑さの夏には少しバテ気味でしょうか。明日はさようなら原発１０万人集会が代々木公園で開催されてます。脱原発の盛り上がりのなかで多くの結集が見込まれています。お早めにお出かけください。 夕方、「ストップ消費税増税」の街宣行動。これは、地方議員有志が都内各地でおこなってきたものですが、本日は世田谷区入りし、三軒茶屋のキャロットタワー前でおこないました。 あいにく強風のため時間を繰り上げて終了しましたが、わざわざチラシを受け取りに来る方もいました。消費税増税に怒りや疑問を持っている方が多いことの現れです。 消費税増税に国民の７割が反対しています。その一方で、国民は騙されているのではないでしょうか。増税の理由は、「社会保障を支える財源がない。」「このままでは日本の財政と社会保障は破綻する」というものです。 「経済のグローバル化によって企業からの増税は空洞化を招く」と法人税率の引き下げがおこなわれてきました。 大企業は莫大な内部留保を確保し、中小企業はますます厳しい経営状況に追い込まれているのが現状です。不公平税制を是正し、増税ありきではなく、この間の議論を踏まえ、日本の社会保障の将来像を明らかにすることが必要です。

http://hanekei.at.webry.info/201207/article_15.html

100% of Japanese Public Surveyed Against Sales Tax Increase - Noda is Toast!

Well, I've been saying for a long time that Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda, who has called for Japan's sales taxes to be doubled, will be out of a job by July of this year - especially when he keeps throwing money away! 

I've also stated repeatedly that Japan's problem of debt is not only declining revenues but a problem with Japan's government bureaucracy in not cutting of wasteful government spending. The debt and interest on that debt, along with an aging population, and energy crisis and a host of other problems will lead to our undoing. Without addressing the spending problem, Japan (and every other country in debt) will never dig out of the hole they are in. Please refer to: Japan's Noda Government Passes 200% Tax Increase - Look for Noda to be Out by July, September at the Latest: 

....Without massive cuts in today's current spending, they can raise taxes to the moon and it won't help. Either way, I predict that this tax increase hasn't the chance of a snow-cone in hell of passing into law. The Noda government is extremely unpopular. The Daily Yomiuri reports in Noda Cabinet approval ratings slides to 30%:

The approval rating of the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda fell to 30 percent from 37 percent in a January survey conducted immediately after a Cabinet reshuffle, a Yomiuri Shimbun survey has found.

And, now, if I read the results of this survey correctly, I have 100% of the Japanese public agreeing with me. Never mind the poor reporting of the story I am about to show you by local English language news sources, let's just look at what they've reported, shall we?


According to a news story that appeared today in the Japan Today web site entitled, "58% of companies say conditions not yet ripe for consumption tax hike", it says: 

In a further sign of trouble for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, 58% of companies say that conditions are not yet ripe for a hike in the consumption tax, according to the monthly Reuters Tankan business sentiment survey of 400 companies conducted last week.

Noda has been struggling to win support for a plan to raise the 5% tax to 10% by late 2015 to fund bulging welfare costs in a fast-aging society.

Of those wary about tax hikes, 78% called for sweeping administrative and political reforms, while 66% urged policymakers to present a clear outline for the future of social security. Respondents were allowed to pick more than one area of concern.

The poll underlined public distrust of policymakers who have failed for years to cut wasteful spending and curb public debt now twice the size of Japan’s $5 trillion economy - the worst among industrial countries.

Yeah. People aren't that stupid. I think that, as I've written, most people understand that unless we control spending, we can raise taxes to the moon and it won't matter. 


I've also mentioned on several occasions that I think these surveys that show any percent of the public thinking raising sales tax is a good idea are highly suspect, but today's survey takes the cake. Before I go and show evidence of that, let me just explain something that seems to have fallen down the memory hole for most people; and that is that the political party of which Yoshihiko Noda is a member of came to power in a general election in Japan on a platform that was against raising the sales tax!


The Asahi News reports in DPJ's Governing Fiasco: Party Never Challenged Finance Ministry:

The DPJ thrashed the Liberal Democratic Party in the August 2009 Lower House election with a promise not to increase the consumption tax rate for four years.

Uh, don't look, now Yoshihiko Noda and the DPJ, it's not 2013 but only 2012, you've now broken the promise that won you the election.


Can anyone say "Four prime ministers in four year?" Shoot. I knew you could. Quick! Someone cue that 80s song by Beck!

But I digress....


Back to the results of the survey. The Japan Today site reports the above. But let's look at how the Japan Times reports the very same story: "58% of poll respondents oppose consumption tax hike":

Fifty-eight percent of respondents in a nationwide survey in Japan are opposed to the government's policy of doubling the consumption tax rate in stages by the mid-2010s, according to The Tokyo Shimbun daily Sunday.

....

The survey, based on face-to-face interviews, was conducted on 3,000 people on Dec. 17 and 18 by a nationwide opinion poll body organized by Kyodo News and 38 of its members. Of the total, 1,756 replied, a response rate of about 58 percent.

Wait! What? Read that again! "58% of poll respondents oppose tax hike." Okay. Then it goes on to say that 3,000 people were polled and 1,756 replied, "A response rate of 58%."


So, I may be confused, but this convoluted sentence, seems to me could be read to mean two things:


a) 58% of 58% of people oppose a sales tax
b) Of the people polled, only 58% responded and those were all negatives; meaning they opposed the proposed sales tax increase.


Even though the reporting seems confusing, now, (b) makes sense to me. Because I don't believe that there's a people in any nation of the world who wishes to pay more sales tax... The only ones who would be in favor of a sales tax increase are people who are able to pocket that increase. I doubt that there's a working person alive who can perform that magic trick.

This looks to say to me, that "100% of poll respondents oppose a sales tax increase." But maybe it doesn't? So I asked all my friends and co-workers if they opposed a sales tax increase, and guess what? It was 100% opposed! No surprises there.


Noda is out on his a*s by July. Mark my words.


Look for Ichiro Ozawa to be Japan's next prime minister. When that happens, all bets are off the table. (But it can't be any worse than what we have now!)


UPDATE! As of last night, in my direct and informal survey, I have asked 42 people if they are against a sales tax hike. I have a solid 100% strongly against. My survey has a margin of error of zero.

Japan's Noda Government Passes 200% Tax Increase - Look For Noda to Be Out by July - September at the Latest

Two interesting articles out this morning. The first one concerns the government of Japanese Prime Minister Noda approving a 200% Sales Tax increase. Fools!

The Wall Street Journal reports in Japan passes tax increases:

The Japanese government on Friday approved a politically charged bill to double the national sales tax, taking action after prolonged wrangling within the ruling party and narrowly avoiding an embarrassment for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. The Cabinet approval finally clears the way for Mr. Noda to meet his promise to bring the bill before parliament before the March deadline stipulated by the tax law, with attention now focused on parliamentary debate, expected to begin in early April.

Passage of the bill, which would raise the tax to 10% in two stages by 2015, is likely to be far from smooth.


A large bloc of lawmakers from of Mr. Noda's ruling Democratic Party of Japan is threatening to vote against it, due mainly to worries that a tax increase would derail Japan's fragile economic recovery.


Mr. Noda also has yet to win support from opposition parties who are expected to use the issue to further pressure Mr. Noda to call a general election. Their support in the upper house of parliament is vital for the measure to become law.

Here are the key points to consumption tax (sales tax) increase bill:

-- The rate will be raised to 8 percent in April 2014, before being further increased to 10 percent in October the following year.

-- Relief measures will be introduced for low-income earners, such as tax exemption with the provision of benefits.

-- Full-fledged discussions should begin on establishing a national revenue agency.

-- An economic turnaround should be set as a condition for implementing the higher consumption tax rate in the future. The government should achieve a nominal economic growth rate of about 3 percent and a real growth rate of around 2 percent, while also implementing necessary measures to achieve the target.

-- Through comprehensive examinations of economic and other conditions, the government should consider suspending the implementation of the higher tax rate or other necessary measures.


That a large bloc of his own party members will vote against this law shows that this is the death knell for the Noda government. Never mind that opposition parties are dead-set against it. I've written about how raising taxes without cutting spending at the same time will not fix Japan's budget and debt problems. I've also mentioned that until this really becomes a major crisis, then the Japanese people will not tolerate a sales tax increase. The most recently was just about a month ago: Japanese Prime Minister Says he Can Get Sales Tax Doubled - I Predict He Will Be Out of a Job by September 2012:

There won't be any sales tax increase under this prime minister. He will be out of office if he really tries to do so. The crisis amongst the public and the political circles hasn't come to a boiling point (because people don't understand how exponential growth of our debts and interest rates on those debts are going to affect us). And, until this really hits home, people will not tolerate a sales tax increase.

We're way past that anyway. Even with a tax increase, if it is not coupled with a massive decrease in government spending, it will not matter because our debts will continue to accumulate along with the interest on those debts. Past history has shown that tax increases will not help as the government will deficit spend any increase in revenues it gets. WhenNoboru Takeshita was prime minister and instituted sales tax in 1988, he claimed that it would end our debt problem. It didn't. It couldn't without a cut in spending. After years of borrowing, we are already well past double the GDP in debt. We need to begin paying down that debt before any talk of a sales tax increase will even matter. That means we must massively cut spending right now. 

This is basic mathematics, folks. 

We need to cut spending, including interest on our debt - as well as paying down that debt to under what is received in revenue - as well as having tax increases to fix the problem we are in. I am against any and all tax increases especially if they aren't coupled with massive cuts in spending - and that's not cuts in future proposed spending, that's cuts in today's current budget.

It's simple. If you get five, you cannot spend seven. 

Without massive cuts in today's current spending, they can raise taxes to the moon and it won't help. Either way, I predict that this tax increase hasn't the chance of a snow-cone in hell of passing into law. The Noda government is extremely unpopular. The Daily Yomiuri reports in Noda Cabinet approval ratings slides to 30%:

The approval rating of the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda fell to 30 percent from 37 percent in a January survey conducted immediately after a Cabinet reshuffle, a Yomiuri Shimbun survey has found.

This trend doesn't bode well for any tax increases. Expect the next survey to have Noda in the low 20s.

In the nationwide telephone survey conducted Friday through Sunday, 57 percent of the respondents said they disapproved of Noda's Cabinet, up six percentage points from the previous survey conducted Jan. 13-14.

The approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan fell to 16 percent, down nine points from the previous survey and marking the lowest rating since the party won control of the government in September 2009.

The survey results suggest Noda is likely to face a difficult time ahead in his policy management.

Interestingly, it seems that while I was writing this blog post, the coalition government is already falling apart. Refer to: Government junior coalition partner already starting to unravel over consumption tax bill:

On Friday, PNP leader Shizuka Kamei said he would pull his party out of the coalition after the cabinet approved the bill. “We joined the government based on its 2009 election manifesto that it would not raise taxes,” Kamei said, according to TV Asahi.

This consumption tax increase proposal is dead in the water before it even gets launched. This really makes you wonder about what Noda is thinking. Proposing a sales tax increase when the economy is so bad and things are so difficult for the average person just shows how completely out of touch these politicians are to the public. They can only think of one thing and one thing only to fix budgets and that is raising taxes...


Our problems are debt... Raising taxes causes spending by the public to decrease proportionately... We need to massively cut spending! When will they ever learn?


Well, in Noda's case it won't matter if he ever learns... He's about to be out of a job.

Japanese Prime Minister Says He Can Get Sales Tax Doubled - I Predict He Will Be Out of a Job by September 2012

This just came out on Bloomberg. The current Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda says he can get a consensus and coalition on doubling the sales tax rate.

Bloomberg reports in Noda Says Deal Possible With Opposition to Double Consumption Tax:

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he thinks he can reach a deal with the opposition to double the 5 percent consumption tax in order to shore up the country’s social security system.

“I believe we can come to an understanding,” Noda told journalists from overseas media organizations today in Tokyo. “I sense that our debate is beginning to jibe.”

This guy is a goner

The combination of an aging society and a declining birthrate has put Japan in an “unprecedented situation” as the government seeks to rein in soaring welfare costs, Noda said. All political parties understand the urgency and must work together as “the question is how to secure stable financing for a sustainable social security system.”

Ha! Ha! Ha! That just shows how delusional this Noda guy is... He has to say stuff like this to the foreign press. Back at home, to the Japanese press, he'd get laughed at. 

Sadakazu Tanigaki, head of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, yesterday said on NHK Television that “it would be best” for Noda to seek a new mandate before submitting his tax legislation. He denied media reports that he and Noda met on Feb. 25 to discuss the situation.

Translation: The LDP doesn't want to seem responsible for raising taxes or not being able to fund social security, so they know that if they can force an election in summer, Noda will be out of office and they can keep kicking the can down the road - in the same way as we they been doing for twenty years.

The LDP has it right too. Noda hasn't even been prime minister for a year yet his popularity ratings are already weak enough that he could never stand a chance of winning any kind of election at all. Twenty seven percent approval rating is disastrous. Especially if you stand on an election platform of raising people's taxes!

Why don't they take a page out of Ron Paul's playbook? Cut spending first before even talking about raising taxes and maybe you'll get public sympathy.

Forty percent of voters oppose Noda’s tax plan, compared with 46 percent who support it, according to an Asahi newspaper poll published Feb. 14. Noda’s approval rating fell to 27 percent from 29 percent the previous month. The paper provided no margin of error for its survey of 1,741 people on Feb. 11-12.

Former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, who is on trial for violating campaign financing laws, today on TV Tokyo reiterated his opposition to Noda’s tax plan. Nine lawmakers left the ruling party after it approved the proposal to raise the consumption tax to 8 percent in April 2014 and 10 percent in October 2015.

Really, what's the point of this nonsense article? There won't be any sales tax increase under this prime minister. He will be out of office if he really tries to do so. The crisis amongst the public and the political circles hasn't come to a boiling point (because people don't understand how exponential growth of our debts and interest rates on those debts are going to affect us). And, until this really hits home, people will not tolerate a sales tax increase.

We're way past that anyway. Even with a tax increase, if it is not coupled with a massive decrease in government spending, it will not matter because our debts will continue to accumulate along with the interest on those debts. Past history has shown that tax increases will not help as the government will deficit spend any increase in revenues it gets. When Noboru Takeshita was prime minister and instituted sales tax in 1988, he claimed that it would end our debt problem. It didn't. It couldn't without a cut in spending. After years of borrowing, we are already well past double the GDP in debt. We need to begin paying down that debt before any talk of a sales tax increase will even matter. That means we must massively cut spending right now. 

This is basic mathematics, folks. 

We need to cut spending, including interest on our debt - as well as paying down that debt to under what is received in revenue - as well as having tax increases to fix the problem we are in. I am against any and all tax increases especially if they aren't coupled with massive cuts in spending - and that's not cuts in future proposed spending, that's cuts in today's current budget.

It's simple. If you get five, you cannot spend seven. Once you owe fourteen, even if you start getting six, you still cannot spend seven. You will have to lower your spending to under all income in order to start paying back past debt and interest or you will never get out of the hole. 

Where to cut? Well. I'm sure we can start with cutting government waste and ridiculous spending on prevention of victimless crimes like prostitution, gambling, drugs, and ridiculous police raids on establishments that have waitresses sitting at tables with customers or arresting owners because people are drinking and dancing at restaurants on Saturday nights!   

Anyway, Noda will be gone by September because he doesn't understand these basic concepts and can't do simple first grade math... 

The best thing that could happen is a massive across the board cut in government services, but, in a country that changes prime ministers every year and has elections every summer, that isn't going to happen as politicians won't cut services because they want to give away our money so that people vote for them.

Our current system is ruined and there is no way to fix it. We are sliding down a steep slope into insolvency. 

The good news is that we won't have a sales tax increase this year. The bad news is that none of these other Japanese politicians are able to grasp first grade mathematics either.... Nor will our next prime minister.