[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
Cabinet to hike tax burden ¥980 billion
More backpedaling on campaign promises
By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer
The Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama adopted on Tuesday a set of tax reforms for fiscal 2010 that would increase the burden on taxpayers by a total of around ¥980 billion a year.
The plan has the government maintaining the current gasoline tax rate, abolishing deductions for families with young dependents and raising the tobacco tax.
The tobacco tax hike — ¥3.5 per cigarette — is expected to raise the retail price of a pack of cigarettes by ¥100. The government estimates this will bring in an additional ¥120 billion a year.
The reform plan contrasts with the Democratic Party of Japan's election pledges to reduce the burden on households to spur economic growth, which could further hurt the popularity of the DPJ-led government.
Meanwhile the government will start providing a total of more than \2 trillion in allowances for households with young children.
Hatoyama praised his tax panel's efforts to compile policy recommendations that included some tax hikes.
The panel would have had a much easier time if its debates had only been on cutting taxes, Hatoyama said.
"But not only tax cuts but also some tax hikes have been compiled" in the panel's recommendations, Hatoyama said at the panel meeting after receiving the plan.
"The conclusion has been hammered out in the belief that this nation and people's livelihood as a result will get better" with some tax hikes, Hatoyama said.
The administration decided to effectively maintain the gasoline tax at its current rate, even though the provisional surcharge will disappear.
Although the DPJ had promised in last summer's general election to abolish the gasoline surcharge from next fiscal year to cut the tax burden by ¥2.5 trillion annually, the government will now maintain the gasoline tax rate given recent stable prices of oil, the need to address global warming, and the government's sharply falling tax revenues.
With the new child care allowances and tuition-free high school system to be introduced, the Cabinet decided to abolish income tax deductions for families with children up to the age of 15 and to cut special tax breaks for families with children aged between 16 and 18.
The government meanwhile decided to maintain deductions for families with dependents aged between 23 and 69.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
Paper on secret nuke pact kept by Sato family
Kyodo News
A document on a secret Japan-U.S. pact signed by Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and President Richard Nixon in 1969 allowing the United States to introduce nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of an emergency has been kept by the Sato family, a close relative disclosed Tuesday.
If the document is genuine, it would put an end to debate over the existence of the secret pact, which has long been denied by the Foreign Ministry.
It would also influence the ongoing probe by a third-party panel set up by the Foreign Ministry to look into nuclear deals between the two countries.
According to Shinji Sato, the former prime minister's son and a former transport minister, the document records the minutes of a secret conversation between Sato and Nixon during a meeting in November 1969, when the two countries were negotiating the return of Okinawa to Japan.
Shinji Sato said the document indicates that during this meeting, the two sides agreed that with prior consultation the U.S. could bring nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of a crisis in Japan or elsewhere in East Asia.
According to him, both parties also agreed to classify this document and keep it only in the White House and the prime minister's office.
He said the document was originally found in 1987, when Hiroko Sato, the wife of Eisaku Sato, died and the family was organizing belongings at their home in Daizawa in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. The family has kept the document since then, Shinji Sato said.
The existence of the document was noted in a book by a scholar of international politics but had not been publicly confirmed.
Eisaku Sato won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 for his three-point nonnuclear principles — not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons to enter Japan.
But the document proves he violated the stated defense policy of Japan, according to his son. A number of statements of former diplomats have strongly indicated the pact did exist, despite the Foreign Ministry's official denials.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
Cabinet to hike tax burden ¥980 billion
More backpedaling on campaign promises
By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer
The Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama adopted on Tuesday a set of tax reforms for fiscal 2010 that would increase the burden on taxpayers by a total of around ¥980 billion a year.
The plan has the government maintaining the current gasoline tax rate, abolishing deductions for families with young dependents and raising the tobacco tax.
The tobacco tax hike — ¥3.5 per cigarette — is expected to raise the retail price of a pack of cigarettes by ¥100. The government estimates this will bring in an additional ¥120 billion a year.
The reform plan contrasts with the Democratic Party of Japan's election pledges to reduce the burden on households to spur economic growth, which could further hurt the popularity of the DPJ-led government.
Meanwhile the government will start providing a total of more than \2 trillion in allowances for households with young children.
Hatoyama praised his tax panel's efforts to compile policy recommendations that included some tax hikes.
The panel would have had a much easier time if its debates had only been on cutting taxes, Hatoyama said.
"But not only tax cuts but also some tax hikes have been compiled" in the panel's recommendations, Hatoyama said at the panel meeting after receiving the plan.
"The conclusion has been hammered out in the belief that this nation and people's livelihood as a result will get better" with some tax hikes, Hatoyama said.
The administration decided to effectively maintain the gasoline tax at its current rate, even though the provisional surcharge will disappear.
Although the DPJ had promised in last summer's general election to abolish the gasoline surcharge from next fiscal year to cut the tax burden by ¥2.5 trillion annually, the government will now maintain the gasoline tax rate given recent stable prices of oil, the need to address global warming, and the government's sharply falling tax revenues.
With the new child care allowances and tuition-free high school system to be introduced, the Cabinet decided to abolish income tax deductions for families with children up to the age of 15 and to cut special tax breaks for families with children aged between 16 and 18.
The government meanwhile decided to maintain deductions for families with dependents aged between 23 and 69.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009
Paper on secret nuke pact kept by Sato family
Kyodo News
A document on a secret Japan-U.S. pact signed by Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and President Richard Nixon in 1969 allowing the United States to introduce nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of an emergency has been kept by the Sato family, a close relative disclosed Tuesday.
If the document is genuine, it would put an end to debate over the existence of the secret pact, which has long been denied by the Foreign Ministry.
It would also influence the ongoing probe by a third-party panel set up by the Foreign Ministry to look into nuclear deals between the two countries.
According to Shinji Sato, the former prime minister's son and a former transport minister, the document records the minutes of a secret conversation between Sato and Nixon during a meeting in November 1969, when the two countries were negotiating the return of Okinawa to Japan.
Shinji Sato said the document indicates that during this meeting, the two sides agreed that with prior consultation the U.S. could bring nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of a crisis in Japan or elsewhere in East Asia.
According to him, both parties also agreed to classify this document and keep it only in the White House and the prime minister's office.
He said the document was originally found in 1987, when Hiroko Sato, the wife of Eisaku Sato, died and the family was organizing belongings at their home in Daizawa in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. The family has kept the document since then, Shinji Sato said.
The existence of the document was noted in a book by a scholar of international politics but had not been publicly confirmed.
Eisaku Sato won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 for his three-point nonnuclear principles — not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons to enter Japan.
But the document proves he violated the stated defense policy of Japan, according to his son. A number of statements of former diplomats have strongly indicated the pact did exist, despite the Foreign Ministry's official denials.
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