Japan government agrees sales tax hike bill

[alp227]

Source: BBC

Japan's government has approved a bill to double sales tax by 2015 to cut debt and fund rising welfare costs as the country ages.

Prime Minister Yoshiko Noda wants to raise the tax - called consumption tax in Japan - from 5% to 10%.

He says the move is key to addressing Japan's financial woes.

But the bill must pass in parliament, where it faces a tough challenge in the opposition-controlled upper house and from within the ruling party too.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17558479

[Art_from_Ark]

1. Raising the national sales tax-- consumption tax-- shohizei

from 5% to 10% is a stupid idea. It is highly regressive, and such an increase will likely lead to a recession, which is what happened when the tax was introduced in 1989, and again when it was raised from 3% to 5% in the late 1990s.