The Constitutional Democratic Party is anxious about being marginalized, with its influence continuously declining under the ruling party.
On February 25th, the leader of the Japan's Constitutional Democratic Party, Tamaki Yuichiro, faced his first parliamentary debate with Prime Minister Hayashi Asako after the House of Representatives election.
Last year, the party proposed autonomous policies such as raising the threshold for income tax, which were fully adopted by the ruling party, showing a momentary sense of presence. However, with the emergence of the super-ruling party, the situation has completely changed, and anxiety about being overshadowed has emerged within the party.
Tamaki put pressure on the prime minister during the questioning, demanding the implementation of the residents' tax deduction amount to be raised to 1.78 million yen as stated in the House of Representatives election pact, thereby increasing people's actual income. He argued, "Not only should the income tax be adjusted, but the residents' tax deduction should also be adjusted in line with inflation, otherwise the income of the people will not increase."
Hayashi Asako only responded with, "We will comprehensively consider the impact on local finances and conduct research," without giving a clear direction. Regarding Tamaki's proposal to issue "education bonds," she only repeated her previous statement: "We will continue to actively study it."
Regarding Hayashi Asako's strongly promoted two-year zero tax rate policy for food consumption tax, Tamaki listed ten issues, including "the three-tier tax rates of 10%, 8%, and 0% would complicate the tax system" and "whether the tax rate can be smoothly restored after two years," trying to distinguish the party's policy from the government's.
Hayashi Asako said, "The various issues that need to be resolved for implementation will be concluded by the cross-party National Conference, and we look forward to your party's participation," without directly responding to Tamaki's concerns. After the meeting, Tamaki told reporters, "I did not get a clear response, which is extremely regrettable."
The minority government led by Hayashi, established in October last year, had previously tried to win over the Constitutional Democratic Party to pass the budget and bills. However, after the major victory in the House of Representatives election, the "utilization value" of the Constitutional Democratic Party decreased, and Hayashi Asako's attitude turned more rigid.
The Constitutional Democratic Party's original basic strategy was to push for its own policies to be adopted by the ruling party in order to gain support. However, in this House of Representatives election, the party only increased from 27 seats to 28 seats, showing weak growth, and in the Diet dominated by the major ruling party, it is increasingly difficult to exert influence.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1858184916789385/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.