TOKYO - Boosting military spending may be Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s best hope of reviving his sinking popularity, but there is a catch, analysts say: paying for it with unpopular new taxes could undermine an already wobbly premiership.
About two-thirds of Japanese voters back a government plan for the country’s biggest military build-up since World War Two, arming it with missiles that can strike targets in neighbouring China or North Korea. That is more than double Kishida’s approval rating, which has plummeted amid revelations about his ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) ties to the controversial Unification Church and the resignation of three scandal-tainted ministers. The problem with the crowd-pleasing defence policy is that Kishida’s administration has been unclear about how it will pay for the estimated $320 billion splurge over the next five years. The increase would push defence spending to 2% of the country’s gross domestic product, or about a tenth of current public spending.
His government has said cost cutting won’t cover it, and with growing unease about how financial markets will react to signs of profligacy, Kishida is turning to tax increases that few voters appear to want and many LDP lawmakers oppose. “From his perspective, he is engaged in a delicate balancing act,” said Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo. “If I had to bet, then I would probably bet against him (Kishida) surviving the entire calendar year next year.”
Kishida, who leads one of the LDP’s smaller factions, needs public support to keep the fractious group in line so he can govern Japan while navigating a slowing global economy, inflation and geopolitical tensions with the country’s nuclear-armed neighbours. ...continue reading
