The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry is considering giving tax breaks in the next fiscal year to people who make their houses earthquake-resistant, ministry officials said Wednesday.
The proposal is part of the ministry's plan to make 90 percent of the nation's housing earthquake-resistant in the next 10 years. About 75 percent of housing was claimed quake-resistant in fiscal 2003.
The officials said the ministry plans to include the request in proposals to be compiled Friday by a panel on disaster preparedness led by Tsuneo Okada, a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo.
In August 2004, the ministry called for deducting up to 10 percent from the income tax and 3 percent from the residency tax for those who spend a maximum of 2 million yen on making older houses more earthquake-resistant. This would apply to houses built before the building standards set in 1981.
But the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry objected to cutting the residency tax, which is part of local taxes.
The move prompted the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Tax System Research Commission to postpone the relevant tax system revision for fiscal 2005.
The land ministry plans to finalize its request based on the 2004 tax cut proposals, and decide whether to include residential tax in the tax cut request for fiscal 2006 by August, the officials added.