Tag - taxes

 
Menu
Search
 
January 21, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

TAXES

U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 21, 2025
Trump declares U.S. exempt from previously agreed global corporate tax pact
The landmark 2021 agreement with nearly 140 countries set a global corporate minimum tax rate of 15%.
Tourists visit Fushimi Inari Shrine in the city of Kyoto on Monday.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 15, 2025
Kyoto to raise accommodation tax to a maximum ¥10,000 per night
The collected money under the new plan would be used to improve infrastructure in the city, such as increasing public transportation.
People pray on the first day of the new year at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. Japan’s economy is set for modest growth in 2025 supported by wage increases and stimulus, but faces risks from political instability and global challenges.
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2025
Hope for the economy in 2025, but dangers loom
Political uncertainty at home and a tumultuous international environment pose real risks for the nation’s economy.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba must get cooperation from at least one opposition party to ensure passage of the 2025 fiscal year budget. He must also show he is capable of a smooth working relationship with the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 1, 2025
Three tests Ishiba must pass to survive in 2025
Overcoming the challenges that lay ahead will require the prime minister to make the best use of his political and diplomatic negotiating skills.
Cabinet ministers at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2024
Japan's Cabinet approves ¥115.5 trillion budget
The proposal exceeded ¥110 trillion for the third consecutive year in order to increase spending on defense and social welfare costs.
A Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) Type 10 main battle tank fires ammunition during a live fire exercise at the JGSDF's training grounds in the East Fuji Maneuver Area in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, in May.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 26, 2024
Japan set to approve record budget, spending more on defense and regions
While the government will have to lean heavily on debt issuance, record tax receipts will enable the cutting back of fresh bond issuance by almost a fifth.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries' Tokyo head office
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2024
Kawasaki Heavy's spending on SDF personnel found taxable
SDF submarine crew members have been wined, dined and given gift certificates by Kawasaki Heavy's Kobe Works, with the expenses reported as tax-deductible.
Three political parties' secretaries-general sign a confirmation letter in Tokyo on Friday regarding the tax-free income threshold.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 20, 2024
Ruling camp approves tax reform proposal
The ruling bloc agreed to “continue talks in good faith” with the DPP, which wants to further raise the tax-free income threshold.
Jasper Cheung, head of Amazon Japan (second from the left), which will enter the "furusato nozei" hometown donation intermediary business.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2024
Amazon Japan to enter 'furusato nōzei' business
Amazon aims to differentiate its service from other sites by delivering gifts as quickly as one day after donations are made.
The secretaries-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and the Democratic Party for the People have agreed to start raising the minimum taxable income level next year.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 16, 2024
DPP tax chief hints at termination of talks with Japan's ruling bloc
The DPP would have to consider axing the talks if the ruling coalition sticks to its proposal of raising the threshold to ¥1.23 million, Motohisa Furukawa said.
Commuters in Tokyo in March 2023.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 13, 2024
Ruling bloc proposes ¥1.23 million minimum threshold for taxable income
Tax chiefs from the LDP, Komeito and DPP plan to meet again as early as Tuesday after the DPP, which seeks to raise the threshold to ¥1.78 million, opposed the proposal.
Yoichi Miyazawa (right), chair of the Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel, said Friday that both the LDP and Komeito have agreed to decide on the start date for higher income taxes at a later date.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 13, 2024
LDP-Komeito bloc defers decision on income tax hike to boost defense budget
The bloc originally aimed to raise income tax rates in January 2027, but reconsidered following discussions with the opposition Democratic Party for the People.
The Lower House Budget Committee clears the 2024 supplementary budget on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 12, 2024
Lower House passes ¥13.9 trillion supplementary budget
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s minority government made concessions to the opposition to secure support for the budget, which includes an economic stimulus package.
Fewer and fewer people are using the administrative consultation system, which will mark its 70th anniversary next year.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 12, 2024
Japan aims to raise awareness of administrative consultation services
Fewer people are using the administrative consultation system, which will mark its 70th anniversary next year.
Wealthy people in Japan failed to declare a total of ¥65.5 billion in taxable income in the year through June, down 33.2% from the year before, a National Tax Agency report showed Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2024
Japan's wealthy fail to declare ¥65.5 billion in income
The tax agency attributed the rise partly to the full-fledged use of artificial intelligence to make investigations more efficient.
Members of the Self-Defense Forces march at the GSDF Camp Asaka, which straddles Tokyo and Saitama, on Nov. 9. As part of a five-year defense buildup launched in 2022, the government has said it will raise personal income, corporate and tobacco taxes to cover the added costs.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2024
Japan wobbles on tax hikes to pay for historic defense buildup
A decision on raising taxes to help cover rising defense spending may be delayed again, a senior ruling coalition official has said.
The Ginza shopping district in Tokyo in August
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2024
Japan to overhaul tax exemption system for foreign visitors
The new system is expected to allow foreign visitors to receive tax refunds for products purchased at prices with the tax included when they leave the country.
People line up to board a bus in the city of Kyoto. To ease heavy congestion caused by an influx of visitors, the Kyoto Municipal Government in June launched sightseeing express buses that run directly from Kyoto Station to major tourist attractions.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2024
Japan's local governments weigh implementing an accommodation tax
The number of visitors to Japan between January and September 2024 reached 26.88 million, setting a record-breaking pace.
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 22, 2024
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
Combined with expected spending from the private sector, this year’s package is estimated to add a total of ¥39 trillion to the economy.
The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is set to approve an economic stimulus package totaling ¥21.9 trillion on Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2024
Ishiba set to announce $140 billion stimulus package
The package aims address a range of challenges from inflation to wage growth, and alleviate a cost-of-living crunch.
Chinese buyer of Okinawa island to make visit in summer
Yanaha Island in Okinawa Prefecture as seen from a ferry.
Japanese firms weigh fallout from Trump tariff pledges
Economists, legal experts and business leaders concur that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to implement fresh tariffs — whether directly aimed at Japan or not — could hurt the country's export-reliant machinery and automobiles industries while shattering the global economy.
Cedar pollen is already in the air in Tokyo
Climate change and urbanization are believed to have contributed to the earliest ever observation of cedar pollen in Tokyo, on Jan. 8, an expert says.
More bird flu cases found in Japan; 1.44 million birds to be culled
Officials with the agriculture ministry hold a news conference in Nagoya on Friday following an outbreak of avian influenza in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, earlier this month.
Fuji TV loses more advertisers amid inquiry into host’s behavior
Fuji TV is losing more advertisers following allegations about inappropriate behavior by a celebrity host and questions about its handling of the case.
Japan looks to learn from the past with bid to build Australian warships
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami frigate, of the class of the same name, is anchored at the MSDF's naval base in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in September 2022.
Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
From Tokyo to Manhattan, Takuma Watanabe stirs up a stiff drink
It's taken Takuma Watanabe little time to establish himself as one of New York's hottest bartenders.
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’
SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER