Mike had the headlines from late Japan time yesterday, here: Japan’s Hamada says BOJ must support economy if recovery is derailed
Here is a recap and more detail from Reuters, on Koichi Hamada, professor emeritus of economics at Yale University and adviser to Japanese PM Abe, speaking in an interview:
- Japan could soften the impact of a planned sales tax increase by raising it in stages rather than in a single hike (the next planned hike, to 10 percent, is in October 2015)
- “As we have seen, the shock from the consumption tax hike could be large … So, ideally, we could raise it in a staged manner, such as 1 percentage point in October 2015 and another point after that.”
On the corporate tax:
- “A drastic corporate tax cut would attract investment to Japan from abroad as well as domestically. This would help to revitalize the Japanese economy, which will help expand the tax base.”
