{"id":301070,"date":"2026-02-20T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/301070\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T13:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T13:14:13","slug":"japans-takaichi-pushes-to-scrap-food-tax-ignoring-economists-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/301070\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Takaichi pushes to scrap food tax, ignoring economists\u2019 warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/sanae-takaichi?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sanae Takaichi<\/a> strode into her first press conference as <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/japan?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Japan<\/a>\u2019s reappointed prime minister on Wednesday, she delivered a clear message to the economists and editorial boards warning her away from her signature tax pledge.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Food consumption tax is going to be scrapped, and nothing is going to stop her.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Formally confirmed in office after the Diet voted to reappoint her \u2013 following a landslide victory in the House of Representatives election on February 8 \u2013 Takaichi reiterated her commitment to eliminating the 8 per cent levy on food and announced plans to establish a cross-party \u201cnational council\u201d to examine the matter before summer.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Analysts expect the panel to report by late autumn, with any cuts potentially taking effect in early 2027.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A shopper visits a supermarket in Tokyo last month. Japan currently applies an 8 per cent consumption tax to most food and drink purchases. Photo: Kyodo\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/30b81ed1-b860-490d-9bda-a90ad4486321_179b1a3d.jpg\" title=\"A shopper visits a supermarket in Tokyo last month. Japan currently applies an 8 per cent consumption tax to most food and drink purchases. Photo: Kyodo\"\/>A shopper visits a supermarket in Tokyo last month. Japan currently applies an 8 per cent consumption tax to most food and drink purchases. Photo: Kyodo<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The pledge proved enormously popular among voters battered by years of rising prices. But critics also found it deeply alarming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Sanae Takaichi strode into her first press conference as Japan\u2019s reappointed prime minister on Wednesday, she delivered&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,166,184,151864,47790,85,19127,46,1437,35345,151863,151862,23071,151865,1880,730,115993],"class_list":["post-301070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-diet","tag-economy","tag-food-consumption-tax","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-il","tag-international-monetary-fund","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-liberal-democratic-party","tag-mainichi","tag-meiji-university","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-temple-university","tag-tokyo","tag-washington","tag-yomiuri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}