Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, recently proposed a raise in the tobacco tax in the fiscal 2000 government budget. The proposal, however, was quickly quashed due to opposition in the LDP and by Japan Tobacco Inc., the nation's only cigarette manufacturer. Smokers and nonsmokers alike were dumbfounded by the political farce.
Opponents said the proposal, which they claimed was made without consulting interested parties, would hurt the Japanese tobacco industry. Kamei said the raise was intended to cover the government's revenue shortfall. Let me point out that higher tobacco taxes worldwide are intended to protect public health, and not to increase government revenues.
Kamei's proposal was an important step in the fight to tighten Japan's controls on smoking, which lag far behind those in other industrial countries and in our Asian neighbors, too. Some politicians without foresight opposed the proposal to curry favor with voters as a general election approaches. It is dismaying that many Japanese politicians argue that the tobacco tax should not be raised, on the grounds that it affects a huge number of consumers.