Poll shows 80% against Japan's tax hike plan for defence outlays

Tokyo, May 7 The majority of residents in Japan are opposed to the country's aggressive defence outlays, or the government's tax hike plan to finance them, a recent local media poll has shown.

About 80 per cent of respondents disapproved of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's call to finance a portion of defence spending by taxes, the survey conducted by national news agency Kyodo showed on Saturday.

The reading further expanded from the 64.9 per cent rate reported in a similar opinion poll at the end of last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Japanese government has decided to increase defence spending by more than 50 per cent to about $319 billion in five years from fiscal 2023, as part of its plans to beef up defensive capabilities.

For the year from April, non-tax revenue will be used to fund the government's defence outlays according to the budget, which is set to double from the country's long-held cap of spending equalling nearly one per cent of the country's GDP to around 2 per cent of GDP in the year starting April 2027.

According to the survey, nearly 60 per cent of respondents considered the five-year defence buildup plan "not appropriate," while 88 per cent felt that Kishida's explanation about enhancing Japan's defence was "not sufficient".

Among the polled, the largest group of 48 per cent said the public cannot bear further tax burdens when asked about the main reason for the tax hikes to cover the rise in defence spending.

The country's broader five-year plan has drawn staunch criticism from the public, opposition parties and scholars, in no small part due to the plan running contrary to Japan's constitutionally-bound pacifist stance.

Regarding the country's major policy shift highlighted in its updated security documents, 76 per cent of those surveyed did not know or were not much aware of Japan's new national security strategy and related documents approved in December, which included the plan to obtain counterstrike capabilities and boost its defence spending.

The poll also revealed that nearly 60 per cent of respondents believed that possessing counterstrike capabilities would lead to an arms race with neighbouring countries.

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