8:00 JST, July 11, 2026

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has a long and complicated history with the consumption tax.

The LDP’s “2010 Party Platform” pledged to consolidate government finances through revisions to the tax system as one of its centerpiece policy issues. Though it sounded rather vague, this meant that the LDP had made a commitment to increase the consumption tax rate, according to an expository text attached to the platform.

The Party Platform, as shown in its name, was revised in 2010 after the LDP was ousted from power in the previous year’s House of Representatives election. The LDP had been suffering from low popularity and some of its Diet members had even left the party, seeing no future in it. Even though the LDP was in the opposition and in severe turmoil, it ventured to advocate a tax hike that was not favored by voters.

It is interesting to speculate why the beleaguered LDP called for a tax hike. One of the party’s intentions was to differentiate itself from the then ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which had pledged financial expenditures without raising taxes. The LDP criticized the DPJ for a lack of fiscal restraint and lax finance policies while at the same time trying to appeal to voters as a responsible party.

More importantly, the LDP leadership, including party president Sadakazu Tanigaki, a former finance minister, regarded the consumption tax as the party’s great legacy.

From as far back as the 1970s, LDP administrations had pursued the creation of a large-scale indirect tax like the value-added taxes of European countries. After World War II, Japanese tax........

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