Japan should consider hiking the tobacco tax to cover the ballooning social security costs that are accompanying the rapid aging of society, economic and fiscal policy minister Hiroko Ota said Friday. ...Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Thursday raising the tobacco tax is an "interesting idea."
But he also said a sharp increase could prove fatal to thousands of Japanese tobacco farmers and the matter should be taken up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel.
Machimura also said he realizes the tobacco tax hike is being proposed also as a measure to curb smoking in Japan and reduce the related health problems.
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