In a Sept. 30 speech outlining his policy platform, Fumio Kishida, the newly elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party and prime minister-in-waiting, outlined a strategy he dubbed “the Reiwa Era’s Income Doubling Plan.”
“Income doubling” is a not-so-subtle reference to the plan advanced by then-ascendant Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda in 1960. He would retire four years later, but under his successor, Eisaku Sato, the Japanese economy continued to surpass 10% annual growth, and its gross national product doubled in less than seven years.
Kishida, stating that as long as the fruits of growth “are concentrated only among some people... we cannot establish a healthy economic cycle,” has vowed to redistribute wealth through the boosting of people’s wages “so more can join the middle class.”
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