UPPER HOUSE ELECTION 2010 / DPJ unscarred by consumption t.

UPPER HOUSE ELECTION 2010 / DPJ unscarred by consumption tax hike plan

Nobutaka Kuribayashi and Kensaku Fujiwara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Yomiuri

The Democratic Party of Japan's top cadre breathed a sigh of relief after a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey showed many voters are coming around to the idea of raising the consumption tax rate, an issue that has been a political hot potato.

The DPJ had been concerned about how Prime Minister Naoto Kan's willingness to raise the tax rate would affect the party's prospects as the ruling and opposition parties duke it out ahead of next month's House of Councillors election.

However, the survey found a majority of voters supported Kan's proposal to raise the tax rate to 10 percent, and that support for the Cabinet only fell 4 percentage points from the previous survey (conducted on June 12 and 13) to 55 percent. DPJ honchos also would have been cheered by the finding that there had …