On the 27th of March, Master Ryuho Okawa gave a public lecture at Takaoka Civic Hall in Toyama entitled, “The Mindset for Realizing Your Dreams”. Around 1,600 people gathered at the venue, and it was broadcast live throughout the North Shinetsu region via the Happy Science relay network.

Currently, Japan is planning to raise the consumption tax to 10% from April 2017. After the tax rate was previously raised from 5% to 8%, the consumption rate dropped. Still, Prime Minister Abe intends to go forward with his policy to the next raise, and has begun discussions for introducing a tax reduction policy for certain items to counterbalance the raise.

Recently, however, he seems to want to alter his plan. Abe announced, “If the world economy experiences a large-scale economic shrinkage, we will have to think about discontinuing this plan”. The Chief Cabinet Secretary also said, “We would not increase the consumption tax rate if it were to reduce sales.”

The government has also continued to hold financial conferences. On the outside, these are conferences where experts in world economics gather to share their views. In reality, however, they are using them to delay the tax increase by having the media report the claims of people, who are against the increase, such as Joseph Stiglitz from Colombia University and Paul Krugman from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

The Happy Science Group has been appealing to decrease the consumption tax rate as increasing it will bring poor economic conditions, and will consequently drag Japan further away from Abe’s dream of pulling out of deflation. Perhaps the administration has finally understood the severe consequences of a tax increase, but using international economists to its advantage is not the right way to do things. Not only this, but reports say that if the increase is postponed, the government will dissolve the House of Representatives and conduct double elections.
In his Toyama lecture, Master Ryuho Okawa indicated that this method is wrong.

A Foolish Administration Blames the Citizens for Its Economic Policy Mistakes

Looking back to the House dissolution and elections of late 2014, Prime Minister Abe said that he wanted the people to believe in his decision for the 18-month postponement of the tax rate increase to the 10% planned hike in October 2015. Now, he is trying to dissolve the House yet again for the exact same reason.

Master Okawa criticized the Abe administration for its dishonest methods saying,

The Happiness Realization Party Will Make the People Happy and Open a Bright Future

Before Master Okawa’s lecture, there was a discussion entitled “Opening the Future of Japan” between the Toyama prefecture candidate from the Happiness Realization Party for the July elections, Kaoru Yoshida, and the head of party, Ryoko Shaku.

For 7 years, since the party was founded, Yoshida has been openly listening to the voters’ voices. She said that recently people have become increasingly worried about the future, and she’s realized, “Wrong economic policies and foreign relations will make the people unhappy.” She gave assurances to small company owners, worried about finding successors, saying that she “would make the consumption tax 5%, would get rid of inheritance taxes, and would fight to flatten income and corporation taxes . . . and that the Happiness Realization Party will indubitably make everyone happy”.

The head of party, Shaku, warned of government intervention, in particular the ‘equal pay for equal work’ ideal, and that the power of the people will wane if we do not protect the freedom of business owners.

The next potential candidates from Fukui and Ishikawa prefectures were introduced, and Shaku gave a formal greeting. In her greeting, Shaku said, “Please entrust your hopes and dreams to the Happiness Realization Party. We will continue to fight for our country as the party of hope.”

In the lecture, Master Okawa also spoke on the following topics:

• The common mistakes of Jodo Shinshu (Buddhist sect)
• The salvation of God and the Angels, and how they are
• Why the government wants to increase the consumption tax
• Why the government’s budget deficit has swelled to ¥1 thousand trillion
• What to do to solve the childcare problem before raising staff pay
• What to do if the government does not implement stronger national security measures
• Free secondary and tertiary education, and its implicit problems