Your Party chief Watanabe rejects Kan's call for tax debate

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TOKYO, July 14 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Naoto Kan should tackle administrative reform before pressing
for tax reform, Yoshimi Watanabe, head of the small opposition Your Party,
which did well in the latest upper house election, said Wednesday.
Kan has proposed a cross-party debate on tax reform, including raising Japan's
sales tax rate from the current 5 percent.
Watanabe criticized the proposal, saying in an interview with Kyodo News that
his party cannot accept any ''discussions on raising taxes'' and urging the
government to first cut wasteful spending through measures such as reducing the
numbers of lawmakers and bureaucrats.
Your Party gained 10 seats in the House of Councillors election on Sunday and
is now widely seen as a possible new partner for the Democratic Party of
Japan-led ruling coalition, which lost its majority in the chamber.
''Cooperation would be possible in fields in which we have common agendas,''
Watanabe said. But he also said collaboration between the two parties would be
''partial'' and depend on individual issues and policies, denying his party
would immediately join the coalition.
Now that the opposition camp controls the upper house, the chamber's president
should be chosen from the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, said
Watanabe, who served as financial services minister in an LDP-led government.
''The way the DPJ managed Diet affairs was really highhanded,'' he said.
The DPJ, however, remains the largest party in the upper house and retains the
right to choose the chamber's president.
Watanabe also said his party will submit a bill to overcome deflation in an
extraordinary Diet session due this fall.
Referring to the party's advance in the election, Watanabe said, ''We aim to
establish our position (as a party) holding a decisive vote.''
==Kyodo