Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2013

An across-the-board 2.1% increase in income tax in Japan has slunk in relatively unnoticed and without comment. This is despite the furore over a prospected consumption tax rise in May 2010, when the IMF prescribed an increase from 5% to anything between 14-22% as a way to stimulate the flagging economy.

Don’t waste time looking for this info in English, though; the National Tax Agency has yet to publish the change on its English website. A PDF—in Japanese—outlining changes and giving examples and FAQs is available to download from the NTA’s Japanese site here.

Yomiuri says 50,000,000 tax payers will be affected. Additional increases in municipal tax will come into effect June 2014, and an increase in hojin tax (applied to companies) will begin April this year. All these tax increases come under the “special measures” law to recover national debt accrued in the wake of the 3/11 triple disaster.

For any of our readers who have 10% tax withheld by their employer, the upshot is that you’ll be ¥210 out of pocket for every ¥100,000 you earn, starting this month. That’s one fewer can of happoshu on the shopping list.

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