Japan’s ruling right-wing coalition approved a huge handout to big business yesterday, passing a tax reform

plan that will cut corporate taxes from April and pledging further reductions in coming years.

The plan approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito will cut the effective corporate tax rate by 2.51 percentage points to 32.1 per cent from April and then to 31.3 per cent the following year.