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The story
The government rolled out a 1-point cut to the consumption tax on groceries as a countermeasure against rising prices, but a Teikoku Databank survey of roughly 10,000 companies found that 54.5% said the cut “will not lead to economic revitalization.” Only 18% said it “will lead to revitalization.” Reacting to these results, 5channel’s Business News+ board saw comments arguing the tax cut was never meant to stimulate the economy in the first place but to fight rising prices, worries about the cost of upgrading cash registers and the added burden on restaurants, calls to fund the shortfall by taxing big corporations and the wealthy, and demands that the weak yen be tackled alongside the tax cut.
September 22, 2026, 9:30 PM
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On the government’s decision to cut the consumption tax rate on groceries for a limited two-year period, half of companies say it “will not lead to” economic revitalization.
Source: news.tv-asahi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
The best way to fight rising prices — and boost consumption and the economy along with it — is to cut or abolish the consumption tax. Rather than leaning on more government bond issuance, we need "fair taxation" to generate revenue. Japan's tax system has real unfairness baked in: big corporations pay a lower effective tax rate than small and medium-sized businesses, and there's the "100-million-yen wall," where the tax burden rate actually starts dropping once income tops ¥100 million.
Japan should follow Mamdani's lead too.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/b87d312cf2557d4cf9181f0526d7fc2d2aa569c6
Uh, sure, okay??
<Keidanren Vision 2015> (Keidanren = Japan's biggest business lobby)
・Raise the consumption tax to 19% by FY2025
・Cut the corporate tax rate to 25% by FY2021
・Actively bring in foreign workers to grow the labor force by 6 million
www.keidanren.or.jp/policy/2015/vision.html
https://japan-indepth.jp/?p=92615
[Key points]
・Ando points out that for restaurants, the 1% food tax cut is effectively a tax hike, since it shrinks the deduction they can claim on their purchases.
・By Ando's estimate, honest takeout food shops that actually lower their prices could run out of cash before the refund ever arrives.
・Ando warns this creates a setup where the smaller shops that can't afford to cut prices end up looking like they're "price gouging." (rest omitted)
Just delays the reckoning on rising prices
September 21, 2026, 5:00 AM
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/global/20260920-GYT8T00046/
The cabinet has approved a tax reform outline that includes the grocery consumption tax cut.
Concerns have been raised about the burden falling on specific businesses — a headwind for restaurants, and a heavy cost for retailers upgrading their registers —
and economist Ryutaro Kono also flags worries about the impact on the economy as a whole.
Sun, Sep 20, 9:40 AM
Bengo4.com News
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/750321357ae7c2855a7d61573dec469c71818bc6
When Bengo4.com News asked readers for their thoughts on the grocery tax cut, it got hopeful responses — but also plenty of business owners' complaints.
From the article in Re: #1
In a Teikoku Databank survey that collected responses from about 10,000 companies last month, only 18% said cutting the consumption tax on groceries to 1% would "lead to the revitalization" of Japan's economy.
Meanwhile, 54.5% said it "would not lead to revitalization."
It was originally meant as a countermeasure against rising prices, right?
It's still a relief if at least food gets the consumption tax knocked off.
And after two years it switches over to cash handouts anyway.
weakens the yen, and cancels out the price relief —
total garbage.
Lip service just to shut up the opposition
must be their life's dream, huh.
If the base price of goods goes up anyway even with no consumption tax, isn't the whole thing pointless?
If they're gonna do something, cutting social insurance premiums or resident tax would actually help more.
If prices stay high and then they bump the rate back up to 8% after two years, it'll spike even more and make things even worse.
that would've covered the cost just fine.
Like a 30% consumption tax on cars over ¥10 million —
that would've kept things fair too.
so their name goes down in history. (Sanae = PM Takaichi Sanae; Truss Shock = the market meltdown under UK PM Liz Truss)
They've been yelling "Takaichi Shock" this whole time and nothing's actually happened lol
The Truss Shock was a triple whammy — weak currency, weak bonds, weak stocks —
but Japanese stocks keep climbing, and dollar-yen is capped out around 160.
Rates might rise, sure, but that's happening worldwide anyway.
Walk or bike it lol
Gas money will cost you more than the couple yen you're saving.
and thanks to the joint intervention the dollar-yen rate
is already creeping back up lol
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
This 1% cut to the consumption tax on groceries is a two-year, time-limited measure written into the tax reform outline as a response to rising prices — it was never meant to serve as economic stimulus in its own right. Reporting has flagged that the cost of upgrading cash register systems weighs heavily on small and medium-sized retailers and restaurants, and that combined with the existing reduced-tax-rate system, the change could effectively amount to a tax hike for the restaurant industry. On the thread, some used the survey finding that it “won’t lead to revitalization” to question the tax cut itself, while others countered that it was never meant as stimulus but as support for households. There were also calls to recoup the lost revenue through taxes on big corporations and the wealthy, and views that the real problem is import prices being driven up by the weak yen. On the whole, the debate centers less on whether the tax cut is good or bad and more on a mismatch over what the tax cut was ever supposed to achieve.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Business news+) thread “[Survey] Consumption Tax Cut “Won’t Lead to Revitalization,” Say Half of Respondents — Teikoku Databank Survey.”
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