Tokyo, 16 January, /AJMEDIA/
Japan’s opposition parties on Monday banded together against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plan to raise taxes to cover an increase in defense spending, hoping to leverage public discontent to challenge the move.
Ahead of a regular parliamentary session starting this month, the Japanese Communist Party agreed with its larger counterparts — the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japan Innovation Party — to take on Kishida who is facing tumbling approval rates for his Cabinet following a series of scandals.
The 150-day Diet session will start Jan 23, with ruling and opposition parties expected to clash in debates over policies such as boosting defense spending and extending the life of nuclear reactors ahead of nationwide local elections in spring.
CDPJ Diet affairs chief Jun Azumi met with his JCP counterpart Keiji Kokuta.
In addition to their shared opposition to Kishida’s policy moves, Azumi and Kokuta agreed to urge House of Representatives Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda to explain his connections with the Unification Church, a controversial religious group that was dragged into the spotlight after the murder of former Japan leader Shinzo Abe.
Azumi told reporters after the meeting that Diet affairs chiefs of the opposition parties will gather Tuesday to confirm their mutual disapproval of Kishda’s tax hike plan.
In December, the government decided to almost double its defense spending over the next five years amid an increasingly severe regional security environment. It plans to cover the increase by raising taxes.
The opposition parties have criticized the decision, which was made after last year’s extraordinary Diet session closed in December, denying parliament the chance to debate the issue sufficiently.
