Can you imagine the Chamber of Commerce pledging to delay lobbying for corporate tax cuts until after the economy has recovered? Me neither.
Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, said the influential lobby would not fight the government if it decided to shelve a plan to lower the corporate tax rate, which at around 40 percent is among the highest in the industrialized world.
Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano suggested last week the government should reconsider the planned tax cut of 5 percentage points from April to prioritize spending on reconstruction and prevent the country's already massive debt pile from growing.
"I don't mind if the government skips cutting the corporate tax rate," Yonekura, who is also chairman of Sumitomo Chemical, told a regular briefing in Tokyo. "Instead I want the government to move swiftly in its recovery efforts."
It should be noted that the Japanese business lobby is still counting on receiving a tax cut, but they prefer to wait until after there has been a substantial recovery to push for it.
Following a recovery, rather than during the middle of one, is the proper time to carefully consider modest tax cuts. A concept which is apparently lost on "fiscal conservatives."