Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, heads for the Diet ahead of an extraordinary session Oct. 20. (Koichi Ueda)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave instructions to ruling coalition executives Oct. 20 to consider cash handouts and reducing income tax as temporary measures to help the public cope with soaring consumer prices.

To this end, Kishida met with the policy chiefs and chairmen of tax system research commissions of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and junior coalition partner Komeito.

The parties will be tasked with deciding the scale of the tax cut and cash handouts, as well as who would be covered by the measures.

The cash handouts are intended for low-income households who may not even be paying income tax. Thus, a tax break could be meaningless in their case.

The LDP’s policy chief, Koichi Hagiuda, met with reporters after the meetings and stated there would be no tax hike next year to pay for a massive five-year defense spending program.

The ruling coalition has until the year-end to decide where the revenue will come from to pay for the defense buildup, as well as another package of measures to stem the falling birthrate.

Kishida’s call for tax cut proposals led to rumblings within the ruling coalition about the folly of discussing a tax cut and a tax hike at the same time. Hagiuda’s comment about no increase in 2024 was intended to address those concerns.

Kishida’s latest call to the ruling coalition, coming two days before Diet by-elections, sparked criticism the proposal was a blatant move to win votes.

But some within the LDP are giving voters greater credit. One lawmaker said the move could backfire on the LDP as voters will see the proposal for what it is and turn their backs on the ruling party at the polling booths.

(Shohei Sasagawa contributed to this article.)

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