Apr 20, 2020 (Japan Times) - Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi marched into the Prime Minister’s Office Wednesday morning with an ultimatum about the government’s emergency economic relief plan for the coronavirus.
Abandon the ¥300,000 per qualified household cash handout and go with ¥100,000 per person without income restrictions, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party’s junior coalition partner told the prime minister and LDP chief. Otherwise, risk alienating a public that is growing increasingly weary of the pandemic and frustrated with the way the administration is handling it.
“The prime minister responded, ‘I will consider it with a course of action,’†Yamaguchi said Wednesday after meeting with Abe. “My understanding is he responded to the suggestion positively.â€
On the following day, Abe ordered a reorganization of the supplementary budget proposal his Cabinet approved a week earlier, a highly unusual step for which he was later forced to apologize during a nationally televised news conference.
The turnabout marked an extraordinary moment in the over seven-year-long reign of Abe, putting Komeito, which dared to challenge the prime minister’s single-handed decision-making authority, under the spotlight and providing a glimpse of the ruling coalition’s mounting exasperation with his administration.
Analysts speculate Komeito chose to go bold with Abe after worrying that his targeted approach would leave out many individuals and families in need, including those in its Buddhist support base organization Soka Gakkai, which is a key voting force for the ruling coalition. Learning the limited payment plan was not received well in opinion polls, the party might have also believed that a wider-reaching package was necessary to preserve the coalition.
Until the flip-flop, the administration was all set to proceed with giving out ¥300,000 to individual households where incomes have been halved due to the virus outbreak or cut to a level that would allow the household to qualify as exempt from paying residential tax.
The plan was based on an LDP proposal put forth by its policy council chairman, Fumio Kishida, even though he initially pushed for a uniform monetary handout as a way to provide immediate relief for those struggling due to the pandemic.
In the meantime, Komeito proposed distributing a cash handout of ¥100,000 per person to those who experience steep income declines, on March 31.
Some members, though, put pressure on Komeito’s leadership to go further and distribute the amount to all citizens swiftly, which the opposition parties also supported. Those with stable and high incomes could reimburse through a year-end tax adjustment or final tax return, they argued.
