Sohei Kamiya, leader of the minor opposition party Sanseito, welcomed the Japanese Communist Party's decision to back a bill cutting the consumption tax to a flat 5%, telling reporters at the Diet on Friday that he is grateful for the support. "I hold them in respect and am thankful," he said.
The Communists' support is unusual. The party has often criticized Sanseito's positions on foreign residents and the constitution, and the two sit at opposite ends of Japan's ideological divide.
Akira Koike, the Communist Party's secretary general, said at a news conference on Wednesday that the bill "matches our position, and we support it." Sanseito submitted the bill to the House of Councillors on October 30.
A bill to cut the rate and scrap invoices
The bill would lower the consumption tax to a flat 5% from fiscal 2027 "for the time being" and abolish the invoice system, under which businesses must register to reclaim the tax they pay on purchases. Kamiya called for it to be debated alongside the government and ruling parties' own tax-cut bill, which cleared the House of Representatives on Friday.
Kamiya said he had expected the ideological gap to make Communist support unlikely. "I thought there would be parts they could not agree with because our ideologies differ," he said. He called the backing a model for opposition cooperation, in which parties work together on policy to scrutinize government bills and budgets. "This is no time to be talking about right and left," he said.
Seeking common ground on funding rules
Kamiya said he wants the opposition to coordinate on regulating corporate and organizational donations and on cutting the number of lower house seats. "Ideally the Democratic Party for the People or the Constitutional Democratic Party would do this, but they can't get it together," he said. "Our party too has to raise its voice on several themes and ask whether the opposition can line up a little better."
On the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's plan to cut 31 proportional representation seats in the lower house, Kamiya demanded that rules on corporate and organizational donations be debated first. He said the opposition should agree a common position on political funding regulation and hold joint news conferences.