A tax increase to finance earthquake reconstruction may be unavoidable considering the nation's huge debt, two ruling party officials said, and two-thirds of the public agrees the measure may be necessary.
"We can't avoid raising taxes as the great earthquake may worsen an already dangerous fiscal situation," Ikkou Nakatsuka, deputy chairman of the tax committee of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said in an interview last week. "We may have the public's understanding if it's spent for quake reconstruction."
A levy increase may help to push back the possibility of a future fiscal crisis with public debt already about twice the size of the $5 trillion economy. Some 67.5 percent of the public support higher taxes to fund reconstruction after Japan's strongest quake on record, according to an opinion poll released Sunday by Kyodo News.