Japan DPP’s Tamaki temporarily steps down as party chief over scandal
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Mr Yuichiro Tamaki will temporarily step down as his party’s leader amid a scandal over an alleged marital infidelity.
PHOTO: REUTERS
TOKYO – Mr Yuichiro Tamaki, a kingmaker for Japan’s minority government, will temporarily step down as his party’s leader amid a scandal over an alleged marital infidelity.
Mr Motohisa Furukawa will take the leadership role of the Democratic Party for the People for the next three months, with Mr Tamaki set to return as party leader on March 4, according to DPP Secretary-General Kazuya Shimba.
The DPP decided to punish Mr Tamaki over the scandal, which was reported in November hours before Japan’s Parliament reinstalled Mr Shigeru Ishiba as premier, as the DPP nominated Mr Tamaki for its top job.
“I have damaged the honour and trust of the party,” he said on Dec 4 following the decision. “I take this very seriously and I intend to deal with this matter sincerely.”
The opposition party has become a power broker following the loss of the ruling coalition’s majority in October’s election.
By year-end, it is expected to strike a deal with the ruling coalition over how high to lift the ceiling for tax-free income from the current 1.03 million yen (S$9,200) as part of tax reforms for the next fiscal year.
That is the DPP’s top policy agenda, and it wants the ceiling to be raised to 1.78 million yen to make it more lucrative for part-time workers to put in more hours, a step that is seen spurring consumption. The government expects doing so would result in a tax loss of up to eight trillion yen. Bloomberg
