TOKYO – Japan’s ruling and opposition party leaders offered competing plans for the economy on Saturday, the first weekend after official campaigning began for the Feb. 8 House of Representatives election earlier this week.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, pitched her “responsible yet aggressive” fiscal measures in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, while Yoshihiko Noda, co-leader of the new main opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, speaking in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo, criticized her for prioritizing a snap election over passing the budget.
Takaichi said an initial budget draft for the next fiscal year, crafted by her government, includes measures to pursue crisis management and growth investment, adding such a “major policy shift” requires “seeking a mandate.”
Noda, a former prime minister, said her decision to call a snap election “puts people’s livelihoods on the back burner.”
Takaichi said her government would “invest where needed while remaining mindful of fiscal sustainability,” while Noda stressed his commitment to permanently eliminating the consumption tax on food items.
Noda, who earlier this month formed a new party with figures from a former LDP coalition partner, the Komeito party, also raised concerns that the yen has weakened under the Takaichi administration, leading to continued inflation in food products.
In Kanagawa Prefecture, which borders Tokyo, Hirofumi Yoshimura, head of the Japan Innovation Party, the LDP’s current coalition partner, and governor of Osaka, emphasized the importance of the two parties having joined forces.
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, seen as a rising opposition force among young voters in recent elections, said in Saitama Prefecture that his party would take steps to “increase take-home pay.”