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Shinz? Abe, born 21 September, 1954 is a Japanese politician and was the President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the chairman of the Oyagaku propulsion parliamentary group. He served the country as Prime Minister, December 26, 2006. He was elected by a special session on the National Diet and was the 90th Prime Minister.
Abe was the youngest post–World War II prime minister and the first born after the war.
He lasted as Prime minister for only less than a year resigning on September 12, 2007. And on 26 September last year, Abe defeated former Minister of Defense Shigeru Ishiba in a run-off vote to win the LDP presidential election. And on December 26, same year, Abe became Prime Minister again following the LDP’s landslide victory in the 2012 general election with a government.
Abe is said to have decided to scrap Japan’s spending cap for the fiscal 2013 budget. The previous controlling party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), established an annual spending limit of 71 trillion yen (approx. $901 billion) in order to try maintaining fiscal discipline.
What is this “Fiscal cliff”? It is the popular shorthand term used to describe the conundrum that the U.S. government said to face at the end of 2012, when the terms of the Budget Control Act of 2011 are scheduled to go into effect.
Abe’s government will review the country’s medium-term fiscal framework as Japan continues to face its snowballing public debt. This debt is left by previous Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda his top priority in raising taxes.
Who is Yoshihiko Noda? Noda was born on May 20, 1957; he was the previous Prime Minister of Japan prior to Abe. He was a member of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), and a member of the House of Representatives (lower house) in the Diet (national legislature). He was named to succeed Naoto Kan as a result of a runoff vote against Banri Kaieda in his party, and was formally appointed by the Emperor on 2 September 2011. Following a severe loss for the DPJ in the December 2012 general election, Noda conceded defeat and announced his resignation as party leader, intending to resign as prime minister upon the formation of former Prime Minister-designate Shinz? Abe’s new government.
Abe made many promises last year to Tokyo Japan and all over the country. This year, can he live up to his promises? One of the LDP’s target election pledges was to revive Japan’s stagnating economy, mainly by pressuring the Bank of Japan into easing its monetary policy. As for its own tax reforms, the LDP begun discussions for its 2013 policy later this week, with a goal of finishing by the end of January.
The tax bill pushed through by Prime Minister Noda included a doubling of Japan’s 5% consumption tax. The LDP’s 2013 reforms are expected to include measure that will reduce the impact of that increase on those with low incomes, as well as increase income taxes on those with high earnings.