2025 POLLS: Japanese ruling, opposition parties highlight focus on people's lives

Delivering a street speech in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said, "We still have to increase wages."

Regarding the LDP's decision to pledge cash benefit handouts while foregoing a consumption tax cut, Ishiba explained: "Speed is the key. We will focus on those in need." He also stated that Japan would increase rice production and that "the entire nation will support the efforts of farmers."

In a stump speech in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said, "Politics will back the spread of wage increases to small and medium-sized companies. We want to lower the employer's share of social insurance premiums."

In light of soaring food prices, Noda asked, "Should we be living in an era when it is impossible to make curry and rice with all the usual ingredients?" To tackle the food crisis, "We would like to achieve a zero pct consumption tax on foodstuffs," he added.

In Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, Tetsuo Saito, chief of Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the LDP, said the party will work on both tax cuts and cash handouts, promising to abolish the provisional gasoline tax rate and to reduce taxes based on the amount of student loan repayments.

Ryohei Iwatani, secretary-general of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), said in the western Japan city of Osaka: "If social insurance premiums are lowered, the burden on companies will decrease and money can be used to raise wages. If the working-age population buys things, the economy will enter a virtuous circle."

Tomoko Tamura, head of the Japanese Communist Party, said in Hamamatsu in the central Japanese prefecture of Shizuoka, "Salary increases are necessary to protect people's livelihoods." She promised that the party would support wage increases for small and medium-sized firms with funds created through taxing large companies' retained earnings.

Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the Democratic Party for the People, said in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, "We would like to realise an increase in take-home pay of over 100,000 yen," and expressed his eagerness to raise the minimum annual taxable income level.

Reiwa Shinsengumi head Taro Yamamoto said in the city of Tachikawa, Tokyo: "We need a thorough economic policy to avoid a 'lost 40 years.' If we abolish the consumption tax, the economy will improve and tax revenues will increase."

Speaking in Osaka, Sanseito chief Sohei Kamiya criticised the LDP, saying, "They say that cutting the consumption tax cut is irresponsible, but the LDP, which has been in power for nearly 30 years and has brought Japan to a standstill, is even more irresponsible."

Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima and Conservative Party of Japan head Naoki Hyakuta also took to the streets to appeal for support.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]