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The story
On October 2, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) released a policy proposal calling for stronger taxation on investment income to help fund a benefits program set for full rollout in fiscal 2029. The plan would prioritize support for child-rearing households earning up to 4 million yen a year and low-to-middle-income seniors — groups said to bear a heavier effective tax and social-insurance burden than their counterparts in the US, UK, and France — with the required funds estimated at around 1.7 trillion yen. Funding would come from scrapping a tax break that promotes wage hikes at small and medium-sized businesses, together with the investment-income tax hike. On 5ch, opinions split between those calling it “absurd” that wage income can be taxed at up to about 55% while investment income faces a flat 20%, and those arguing that having 20% automatically withheld at the source is “already enough.” Many posts also questioned why corporate tax and retained earnings weren’t part of the discussion.
On the 2nd, Keizai Doyukai released a policy proposal that includes strengthening taxation on investment income to help fund the “Worker Burden Relief Benefit,” a program the government plans to fully roll out in fiscal 2029. It argues that prioritizing payouts to low- and middle-income households — who face a heavier tax burden than their counterparts in the US and Europe — would help boost consumer spending.
With low- and middle-income child-rearing households in mind, the proposal calls for prioritizing support for households earning up to roughly 4 million yen a year — a bracket facing a substantially heavier tax and social-insurance burden than in the UK, US, and France. Including benefits for low- and middle-income elderly households, the necessary funds were calculated at around 1.7 trillion yen.
It said the funding could be covered by abolishing the wage-hike tax incentive for small and medium-sized businesses — since pay raises are now taking hold — together with strengthening taxes on investment income.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Do something about the weak yen and rising prices already, you clown.
Takaichi, you poverty-god reflationist — resign!!
Get the dollar back to ¥80-120.
All you weak-yen cheerleaders can get out of Japan already!
Companies that kept their factories in Japan to protect domestic jobs even through the strong-yen years are finally getting rewarded now that the yen's weak — what are you even complaining about?
Idiots can only think in 0 or 100, that's the problem.
The weak yen is basically already propping up incomes, you know.
Japan's corporate tax rate is already plenty high compared to other developed countries.
We're basically in a Greece-level crisis here, aren't we? Raising it would be fine, lol
Right, and the area where Japan is overwhelmingly out of line with other countries is excessive medical spending. Remember during COVID when they pointed out Japan was the only country with this many for-profit private hospitals? That's the root of all evil right there.
Just switch it to comprehensive taxation. Then rich people would get about 55% taken once you add in residence tax. The fact that wage income sits at 55% while investment income sits at 20% is what's absurd.
By that logic, you'd have to lower rich people's residence tax too.
Why do these guys get to call 20% too low when they barely pay any tax themselves?
You don't even hit a 20% income tax rate unless you're earning over 20 million yen a year — that's plenty high.
Meanwhile you're making 3 million a year and only paying 1%, which is 30,000 yen.
From a company's perspective, any tax hike is welcome as long as it's not another hike in social insurance premiums.
How is that saintly, lol. They're just shifting the burden of their own corporate tax cuts onto individuals while execs rake it in.
Well yeah, that's exactly to avoid using corporate tax as the funding source.
Exactly 🤣🤣🤣 Isn't it like 3x higher than other countries? lol
I'm against it — cut the pay and talented people will stop wanting to become politicians.
It's a crisis for Japan, so help out, rich boy. lol
This isn't about individuals. The problem is that wage income is progressive while investment income isn't — that's what's absurd. That's exactly why the gap keeps widening.
Taxation is also supposed to correct inequality, so this is something the government should step in on.
Re: #129
You two are only saying this because you know you'll be low-income for life.
"Take more from people who actually earn money" — that's resentment taken to its absolute peak.
The progressive tax system itself is what's absurd, honestly.
Stock prices and ordinary people's lives have basically nothing to do with each other these days anyway.
The whole public gets turned into peasants, but in exchange the people who make the rules stay fixed in place — I think that's exactly how they want it.
That's a fair point. For industries that supposedly "can't survive without foreign workers," I'd say cut their taxes before bringing in foreigners.
How much is "a big cut," exactly? Bitcoin's already taxed pretty heavily as it is.
> Go ahead and take a big cut of the money people make off stocks, FX, and Bitcoin.
Then let's start by heavily taxing the stock trading profits of the GPIF (Government Pension Investment Fund), which currently pays zero tax on them. Your own pension would shrink massively too — you're fine with that, right? lol
Do that and the LDP would lose its organized-vote backing.
Both employee salaries and executive pay have actually risen enormously. Go check your own pay stub and the company's securities report.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Investment income in Japan is currently taxed separately from wage income under a flat “separate taxation” scheme of roughly 20% (15% income tax + 5% residence tax). Wage income, by contrast, can reach an effective rate of around 55% once the top 45% progressive income-tax bracket is combined with residence tax — a gap that has long fueled criticism of the so-called “100-million-yen wall,” where the more someone earns from dividends and capital gains, the lower their effective tax rate becomes. Keizai Doyukai’s proposal uses this gap as a funding mechanism, redirecting the money toward support for low- and middle-income child-rearing households. The thread split between those who see the flat 20% rate as “already heavy enough” and those who see the gap with wage-income tax rates as “unfair,” with some posts noting that investment income is the only thing on the table while corporate tax and retained earnings have faded into the background of the discussion. One point left unaddressed in the thread: raising investment-income taxes wouldn’t necessarily hit small-scale NISA (tax-free investment account) investors hard — the bigger impact would fall mainly on those with large-scale dividend and capital-gains income.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Keizai Doyukai Proposes ‘Strengthening Taxation on Investment Income’… To Fund Support for Households Earning Up to 4 Million Yen a Year Facing a Heavy Tax and Social Insurance Burden.”
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