It is rare in Japan to find one bold political leader, and even rarer to find two. Yet since the start of the year, two men with wildly different personalities, political styles and power bases have launched daring projects that they hope will help shake Japan out of its long economic funk. They may end up colliding with each other. The first is the prime minister, Yoshi-hiko Noda. At the opening of the Diet, or parliament, on January 24th, he said he would present a bill by the end of March that aims to double the consumption tax, to 10%.
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