Japan’s Suga Sees No Need for Sales Tax Hike in Next Decade (1)

Yoshihide Suga, the front-runner to become Japan’s next premier, appeared to backtrack from earlier comments about the sales tax and align himself with outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying there is no need for another hike in the next decade.

“Abe once said the sales tax doesn’t need to be raised for about next 10 years. My thinking is the same,” he told reporters in Tokyo on Friday.

Yoshihide Suga on Sept 9.

Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

Suga said on a TV show Thursday evening that further increases in the tax are inevitable sometime in the future given the country’s aging population. Abe, Suga’s longtime boss, ...