I joined an English class today in which some native speakers and Japanese talked together. We discussed consumption tax hike in Japan. The Japanese government is planning to hike sales tax from 8% to 10% next year. We separated into positive and negative groups and had a discussion.

This topic was quite difficult for me as I have never thought on this issue. But I want to write down my opinions here.

Basically, I agree with the hike. Japan has aging population and declining of birth rate. The Japanese population is going down in near future. So, we have to pay more to sustain our society. The government has already announced that the use of additional tax will be limited for welfare. It`s not for military and unnecessary infrastructure. 

Some people claimed that consumption tax is not fair because rich people and poor people have to pay the same amount. They said the rich should pay much more. However, everyone including foreigners has to pay consumption tax. In addition, the rich have already paid more in other tax. So I think sales tax hike is quite fair.

No one likes the hike. But in order to make our society sustainable and to get better social services, we have to accept consumption tax increase.