Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday floated the possibility of calling a snap election before a tax increase aimed at funding the country’s defence budget comes into place “sometime after 2024”.
The government is set to implement tax increases to cover a shortfall of 1 trillion yen ($7.47 billion) in the defence budget, despite stiff opposition from within the ruling coalition amid Kishida’s sagging popularity.
“We will be asking the public to take on the (tax) burden for an appropriate period of time, starting from sometime after 2024 up to 2027. We’ll make a decision on when it starts, and I think there could be an election by then,” Kishida said.
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