Political visions in Japan: Generational warfare
IT IS rare in Japan to find one bold political leader, and even rarer to find two. Yet since the start of the year, two men with wildly different personalities, political styles and power bases have launched daring projects that they hope will help shake Japan out of its long economic funk. They may end up colliding with each other.The first is the prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda. At the opening of the Diet, or parliament, on January 24th, he said he would present a bill by the end of March that aims to double the consumption tax, to 10%. For well over a decade, the political establishment has acknowledged the need for an increase, but its nerve has failed it time and again, despite a ballooning government debt and rising social-security costs for an ageing population. Mr Noda is now gambling his political life on such a tax rise. He also wants to slash the number of Diet members from 480 in the lower house to 395, cut the salaries of civil servants by 8%, and reduce their housing benefits.Any one of these measures would, in a Japanese context, be considered bold. All three together seems almost quixotic in a...
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Written by The Economist: Asia on January 26th, 2012 with
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