The government reshuffle forced by Yoshihiko Noda to allow the government to raise consumption tax, necessary to staunch enormous foreign debt. From a tax of 5%, the Japanese Prime Minister wants 10% within the decade.

Tokyo (AsiaNews) - Japanese Prime Yoshihiko Noda has completed yet another cabinet reshuffle, replacing 5 of the 18 ministers in order to obtain the opposition support for his tax reform. They Ministers of Defense and Transportation, Naoki Tanaka and Takeshi Maeda, have lost their portfolios who received the complaint in April of the upper house of parliament controlled by the opposition.

The new defence minister is Satoshi Morimoto, 71, a college professor who becomes the first non- Parliamentary Japanese army chief: it is a government attempt to calm the positions of China and Korea regarding the various maritime conflicts in recent months which have agitated the Asian powers.

The need for action on tax has been repeatedly urged by international bodies like the IMF and the OECD: the third world economy has in fact a tax rate on consumption of  just 5%, a share that Noda aims to double within the decade to stem the huge public debt.

The fact that the Fitch parameter sees up to 239% of GDP this year, and for this reason, recently downgraded the Japanese rating. It is expected that by 2013 the Japanese government debt will rise to about 937 trillion yen. The reshuffle, the Prime Minister said, "is designed to strengthen the government. In order not let anyone defeat these reforms, I will do my best to make sure they pass."

• Japan
• political
• economy
• reshuffling
• government
• tax
• reform
• noda