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More than a quarter of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s candidates in the Upper House election favor reducing the consumption tax rate, despite the party leadership’s criticism of such a move, a survey showed.

In the campaign for the July 20 election, opposition parties have called for lowering or temporarily eliminating the consumption tax to help the public deal with the rising cost of living.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is LDP president, has consistently opposed such tax cuts, saying rising social security expenditures and welfare services depend on revenue from the sales levy.

But according to a joint survey by The Asahi Shimbun and the research group of professor Masaki Taniguchi, a political scientist at the University of Tokyo, 26 percent of LDP candidates running in the election expressed support for either a temporary or permanent cut to the consumption tax rate.

Fifty-one percent opposed the idea, and 23 percent neither supported nor opposed it.

The internal split within the LDP raises questions about how unified the ruling party is on economic policies to deal with rising prices, the biggest issue for voters in the election.

In fact, LDP members in the Upper House in April urged the party leadership to consider temporarily reducing the current 8 percent consumption tax on food items to zero percent for two years.

The LDP’s official platform for the Upper House election campaign features direct cash payments and other measures, but no consumption tax cuts.

In contrast, opposition parties advocating for a temporary zero percent tax rate on food are far more united in their official party platforms.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan saw 84 percent of its candidates backing the tax cut, according to the survey.

Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) followed, with 75 percent of its candidates in favor. Other opposition parties had support rates exceeding 90 percent for a tax reduction.

Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner, showed a starkly different trend: Only 13 percent of its candidates favored a tax cut, while just 4 percent opposed it.

An overwhelming 83 percent remained neutral on the issue.

Komeito had also previously discussed lowering the tax rate on food before ultimately settling on a cash handout policy in its campaign pledges.

The survey was conducted starting in late May and targeted 522 candidates in the election. As of July 14, 496 candidates, or 95 percent, had responded.

(This article was written by Yuta Ogi and Daiki Koga.)

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