Japan PM comes close to sales tax hike
(08-07 17:27)
Japan's prime minister looked set Tuesday to achieve his long-cherished goal of hiking consumption tax, with senior opposition figures agreeing to a final vote on the divisive issue.
Yoshihiko Noda has invested most of his political capital in a plan to double the current five percent sales tax in what many analysts agree is a sensible way for Japan to begin tackling its huge mountain of debt.
The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) appears ready to line up behind Noda's ill-disciplined Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in an upper house vote some time on Wednesday, reports said.
The DPJ does not have a majority in the upper chamber.
The vote is the final hurdle for a bill that has taken up a huge chunk of his administration's energy as it battles public opposition and a disintegrating party.
Advocates of the hike say it will help pay Japan's exploding social security bills as a greying population collides with a shrinking workforce, a situation that has created the worst public debt in the industrialised world.
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