Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son ranked as Japan's third-largest individual taxpayer in 2000, up from 16th in 1999, the National Tax Administration said Wednesday in an annual report listing the top 100 taxpayers.
Son, known at home and abroad as a leader in the Internet business world, paid about 1.56 billion yen in income tax in 2000, just behind the 1.89 billion yen paid by Hiroshi Mikitani, president of Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc., the report says.
Masahito Otsuka, a former adviser to Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. and its group firms who died last year at age 83, was the top individual taxpayer, shelling out some 4.16 billion yen.