InsideJapan News Network

Japanese residents and businesses are due to bear the financial brunt of the rebuilding effort after the March 11th earthquake, the government has said.

Raising taxes is seen as an unavoidable measure, Bloomberg reports, as Japan's public debt is already twice the size of the country's GDP.

Ikkou Nakatsuka, deputy chairman of the tax committee of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said in an interview last week that the financial situation was already "dangerous" before the earthquake.

"We can't avoid raising taxes as the earthquake may worsen an already dangerous fiscal situation. We may have the public's understanding if it's spent for quake reconstruction," he said.

His comments seem to chime with the public mood, as an opinion poll for Kyodo News recently showed a 67 per cent support for higher taxes to fund rebuilding the worst-affected areas of the north east.

Written by Kimberley Homer


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