DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki said on Tuesday that four LDP lawmakers walking out before the Lower House vote on the consumption tax cut bill proved the legislation is something even a former prime minister could not support, as the bill now moves to the Upper House.
Speaking at a news conference, Tamaki said the conduct of former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and the three others showed the bill's contents left them no choice but to oppose it, the Sankei Shimbun reported.
The Democratic Party for the People opposes the bill in the Lower House. "Ordinary citizens must be thinking, 'Is this really okay?'" Tamaki said.
He predicted more trouble when Upper House deliberations begin on Wednesday. "More people may be absent again," he said.
Four LDP members disciplined
Ishiba and three other LDP lawmakers left the chamber before the vote at a plenary session of the Lower House on Nov. 6. They told reporters they had doubts about the bill's contents.
The LDP issued formal reprimands to all four on Monday. Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki told a news conference the party could not overlook the walkout "from the standpoint of party discipline and party unity."
The other three were Yuko Obuchi, Yoshihisa Furukawa and Hajime Funada.
Tamaki demands tax cuts, not bigger handouts
Tamaki said Lower House deliberations on the bill had failed to answer the essential questions. On the Upper House, he said his party's position would not change if the bill's contents stayed the same.
"If the substance is unchanged, the two chambers will not reach different conclusions. As things stand, our opposition is clear," he said.
He said widening the pool of people eligible for support payments would not be enough to win his party's support.
Even if the scope and amounts of the payments changed, the tax burden on middle-income earners would not ease, he said. "Tax deductions, in other words tax cuts, are missing, so the middle class is not being helped."
Tamaki called for a cut to the resident tax from fiscal 2029, which begins in April of that year.