Forty-nine percent of Japanese voters oppose the government's tax-hike plan for post-quake reconstruction, while 65 percent feel more can be done to cut wasteful spending, an Asahi Shimbun survey found.
Forty-nine percent of Japanese voters oppose the government's tax-hike plan for post-quake reconstruction, while 65 percent feel more can be done to cut wasteful spending, an Asahi Shimbun survey found.
The proposed tax increases, including the income tax, were supported by 40 percent of respondents in the telephone survey conducted on Oct. 15 and 16.
The survey also found the support rate for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Cabinet dropped to 48 percent from 53 percent in the Sept. 2-3 survey taken immediately after his Cabinet was formed.
The disapproval rate was 26 percent, up from 18 percent in the previous survey.
One apparent reason the tax--hike plan is not receiving substantial support is that voters feel not enough is being done to cut wasteful government spending.
Asked to choose from four options, only 33 percent said they "highly praised" or "praised to a certain extent" the efforts of the Democratic Party of Japan-led government to reduce wasteful spending. In comparison, 65 percent answered they "do not praise so much" or "do not praise at all" those efforts.
Fifty-four percent of those who "praised" the government's efforts backed the plan to increase taxes. Of those who did not think much of the efforts to cut spending, only 33 percent supported the tax-increase plan.
One of the government's planned tax hikes--a 2-yen (2.6 cent) increase per cigarette--was supported by 63 percent of respondents, far exceeding the 29 percent opposed to higher tobacco taxes.
But on the proposal to raise the consumption tax rate to 10 percent for social security funds, respondents were split, with 45 percent for and 46 percent against.
An overwhelming 91 percent said they agreed with the idea of reducing the number of Diet members and their remunerations before taxes are raised. Seventy-five percent also supported the idea of slashing personnel costs for national public employees.
On the scandal involving Ichiro Ozawa, 60 percent of respondents said the former DPJ president should "explain in the Diet" his involvement, compared with 30 percent who said "it would be sufficient if he would give an explanation in court."
Ozawa is now on trial at the Tokyo District Court over allegations he conspired with his aides to falsify political fund reports. He has pleaded not guilty.
The survey covered 1,867 randomly selected eligible voters across the nation.