Former Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa and 49 party lawmakers decided Monday to leave the ruling camp in protest against Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's tax-hike legislation. Thirty-eight House of Representatives members and 12 from the House of Councilors submitted their resignations and were expected to form a new political party after Ozawa reiterated his opposition to the legislation. The divided ruling party needed the votes of opposition parties to push the legislation through last week. The bills on social security and tax reforms would raise the current 5-per-cent sales tax to 8 per cent in April 2014 and to 10 per cent in October 2015. Noda said the hike was needed to help cover the nation's swelling social security costs as the elderly population grows, according to a report of DPA. Opponents argued the legislation reneged on party pledges in the 2009 election, which it won with the slogan "Putting People's Lives First." That ended more than a half-century of almost uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. Ozawa called the tax hike "an act of betrayal to the public."
