The changing Japanese economy and the need for a fundamental shift in the tax system
Article Abstract:
Japan needs to make changes in the Shoup Commission's comprehensive income tax system to deal with changing economic conditions. The problems related to the income tax system after World War II include the light taxation of asset income and the heavy taxation of wage income. This system has led to horizontal inequity. Japan must deal with an aging population and an increase in the wealth-to-income ratio in the future. Most of the problems caused by the tax system could be eliminated if Japan adopts a qualified-account type of expenditure tax system and a higher value-added-tax-type of consumption tax.
Publication Name: American Economic Review
Subject: Economics
ISSN: 0002-8282
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
The Nakasone-Takeshita tax reform: a critical evaluation
Article Abstract:
The Nakasone-Takeshita system of tax reform of 1987-1989 was implemented in Japan in response to the problems with the Shoup Mission's selective excise tax system of 1949. The new system was based on a 3% value-added tax called the consumption tax. The NT reform was designed to reduce the proportion of revenue attained from personal income and to create a less egalitarian tax system. Research on the feasibility of this system indicates that the NT reform achieves vertical equity while avoiding the problems caused by the Shoup Mission's comprehensive income tax.
Publication Name: American Economic Review
Subject: Economics
ISSN: 0002-8282
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
The Shoup tax system and the postwar development of the Japanese economy
Article Abstract:
The Shoup Mission of 1949-1950 dramatically changed the tax system in Japan. A schedular system with a partial tax base was replaced by comprehensive income taxation. Tax incentives contributed to high economic growth, but trade policy and financial policy also were factors in economic development. Japan must change its tax system in the 1990s to keep its role in the international economy in an environment characterized by free trade and financial deregulation.
Publication Name: American Economic Review
Subject: Economics
ISSN: 0002-8282
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Interbank payments and the daily federal funds rate. A model of the bimetallic system. Does the fed act gradually? A VAR analysis
- Abstracts: The political economy of the budget surplus in the United States. Reassessing discretionary fiscal policy
- Abstracts: Learning and its rationality in a context of fundamental uncertainty. Technology transfer under asymmetric information: The role of equity participation
- Abstracts: Ethical issues in contemporary human resource development. Business ethics in the Netherlands: a survey. Analysing moral issues in stakeholder relations
- Abstracts: Immigration policy and immigrant quality: the Australian points system. Optimal income taxation and international personal mobility