TOKYO, May 15, 2023―More jobs for bureaucrats and higher taxes for individuals and businesses, a recipe for Japan’s weakening:
Legislation to transition Japanese society into decarbonation May 12 cleared the lower house of parliament enabling the Japanese government to sell 20 trillion yen in ‘GX bonds’ from 2023 and collect fresh new environmental taxes from fossil fuel businesses, and to build a new government organization for administering programs, according to the House of Representatives website.
The bill concerning the promotion of transitioning into decarbonation economic structure, or the GX promotion bill, was immediately sent to the House of Councilors for rubber-stamping before the current Diet (parliament) session adjourns in late June.
Superficially, the bill sounds good for the environment: It is part and parcel of Japan’s 150 trillion yen public-private investment necessary for its carbon neutral pledge by 2050. Reality is that money shall be spent (more likely to be wasted) in bureaucracy labor, travel and expenses, and other administrative costs, plus, of course for developing and selling unsuccessfully or short time junky goods and services of businesses that cozy up to national and local government offices.
To date, many municipalities have introduced and collected environmental tax in-kind and many programs earmarked for them have underused budgeted sums. Examples among those, in Nagano, which began collecting reforestation tax several years ago, are forest therapies, proactive firewood use to lessen fossil fuel dependance, forestry use for schools, and reforestation of inner cities.
Now, with the national government set to be in charge, wastefulness should accelerate.
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