Proposal: 50% tax on elites to fund domestic demand, while honoring engineers over celebrities to revive Japan’s economy.

On August 26, 2010, the author presents a concrete proposal to break Japan’s economic stagnation. He suggests a 50% tax rate on the elite class with an annual income of 20 million yen or more, with the revenue used as subsidies for purchasing homes and cars to boost domestic demand. He also argues that TV commercials should stop featuring celebrities and instead use the funds to reward Japan’s engineers and inventors. The author expresses his anger at the trend of belittling the “artisan spirit” that is Japan’s true strength and calls for a fundamental reform to make the nation prosperous.

My Proposal
August 26, 2010

I propose raising the tax rate to 50% for all politicians, bureaucrats, local officials, and elites earning over 20 million yen annually. The revenue should then be directed to subsidize industries with the greatest domestic demand effect—housing, automobiles, and so on—for the ninety percent of workers who, after twenty years of endless hardship through restructuring and wage cuts, still earn no more than five million yen a year.

This higher tax rate should remain in place until someone among them produces a solution that truly restores Japan to prosperity. Considering the national loss over the past twenty years—up to 900 trillion yen in total—this is only natural.

If they can then fully demonstrate that raising the consumption tax is indeed the path to prosperity, so be it. But I am convinced that with the market left as it is, Japan cannot return to its status as an economic power. Corporate tax reductions should also be implemented only after this first step.

Would this not drive truly capable individuals abroad? If so, those who flee were never citizens worthy of the nation in the first place.

The one exception is measures to prevent the outflow of engineers and inventors who have supported Japan as an industrial and technological power. For that, I propose the following:

Immediately stop using pretty actresses and celebrities in TV commercials. Instead, showcase the work of engineers who achieved innovations, saying: “This part of our research was made possible by our product X. The heart of this product was invented or developed by this engineer. He too is our treasure.”

Pay them the enormous sums now squandered on trivial celebrities as appearance fees. Even if engineers are still taxed at the usual 50%, I am convinced they would not object.

As for the elites at the outset—if they are forced to borrow money at interest rates of over 10% to make ends meet, so much the better. That way they will finally understand firsthand the suffering of those driven into such desperate conditions.

If unnecessary bureaucrats resign in disgust, that is fine. And if capable ones also resign? There is nothing to fear—if things continue as they are, at least half the population is capable of filling their roles.