Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Deliberations began in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, on Tuesday on bills to cut the consumption tax on food and introduce an income-linked benefit program.

During a plenary session of the Lower House, the purpose of the bills was explained, and interpellation was held on the legislation, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in attendance.

Opposition parties plan to focus their questioning on the roughly 5 trillion yen in annual funding needed to cover the revenue loss from the tax cut and the design of the income-linked benefit system.

This would be the first consumption tax reduction since the tax was introduced in 1989 if the bills pass. The Japanese government as well as the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party have positioned the bills as the most important legislation of the current Diet session, aiming to secure approval by the Lower House by early November.

Although the opposition Conservative Party of Japan has expressed support for the legislation, there is still no clear prospect of its passage in the Senate, the upper chamber, where the ruling coalition lacks a majority. Attention is focused on whether the ruling camp can secure enough support for the bills in the Upper House to clear the majority threshold by compromising with opposition parties.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (second from left) attends a cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, holds a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Yuichiro Tamaki (third from right), leader of the Democratic Party for the People, and other party officials submit to the House of Representatives a bill serving as a counterproposal to the government's legislation on a consumption tax cut, at the Diet building in Tokyo on Tuesday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]