Magic circle?

27 September 2012 By Martin Hutchinson

Budget-cutting former prime minister Shinzo Abe has been chosen to lead the opposition. The current DPJ government has done half Japan’s budget work by increasing the sales tax from 2014. Now an Abe premiership is the country’s best hope of cutting pensions and other spending.

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Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party on Sept. 25 chose Shinzo Abe, Japan’s former prime minister, as its leader.
The next Japanese general election must be held before 30 Aug., 2013 and there is a tentative agreement between the two major parties to hold the election earlier that year.
The LDP currently has a small opinion poll lead over the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, but “don’t knows” outnumber both parties.
A new nationalist party, the Japan Restoration party, led by Toru Hashimoto, mayor of Osaka, and a breakaway from the DPJ, the People’s Life First party led by Ichiro Ozawa, will also contest the election and are expected to attract significant support.
Japan’s Gross Domestic Product grew at a 1.2 percent rate in the second quarter of 2012; the forecasters expect 2.3 percent growth in 2012 and 1.4 percent growth in 2013.
The International Monetary Fund expects Japan’s government debt to reach 237 percent of GDP by December 2012. It has criticized Japanese banks for assuming excessive interest rate risk by holding government bonds. Japan’s consumer price index declined by 0.4 percent year-on-year in July 2012.
Government spending in Japan is equivalent to 42 percent of GDP. The current DPJ government of Yoshihiko Noda has passed legislation increasing Japan’s sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent in April 2014 and 10 percent in October 2015.

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