Nine out of 25 members of the General Affairs Committee of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party were absent from an Aug. 5 meeting in which attendees voted unanimously to approve Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's plan to cut the food consumption tax from 8% to 1%, Kyodo News reported on Aug. 6. Meanwhile, The Asahi Shimbun reported on Aug. 6 that the finance ministry transferred the deputy director-general of the Budget Bureau to a role at Tokyo Customs because the official was "not very cooperative with the administration."