Normally, proposing a tax hike is considered a sure way to lose an election.
But Prime Minister Naoto Kan is saying that¡¯s what Japan needs to rein in its bulging national debt in the campaign leading up to this Sunday¡¯s Upper House election.
The poll, in which half the seats in the 242-member Upper House are up for grabs, is viewed as a referendum on the Democratic Party of Japan¡¯s 10 months in power since defeating the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The DPJ has promised to cut wasteful spending and bring greater transparency to politics.
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