Shinzo Abe

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Shinzo Abe

Prime Minister, Japan

Shinzo Abe

Shinzo Abe has remained steadfast in his desire to implement tax reform measures in the face of opposition from members of his own Liberal Democratic Party and objections from some of his closest advisers.

His plan includes reducing Japan’s corporate tax rate, which stands at one of the highest in the world, and he also wants to implement a consumption tax rise. Japan’s room for manoeuvre and ability to implement reform were severely hampered by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, which derailed the corporate tax cut contained in the Tax Reform Act 2011 and instead saw the implementation of a three-year surtax to assist the post-earthquake recovery.

But Abe has returned to the idea of tax reform time and again, and this year’s formation of a specialist reference group will do much to inspire confidence in the business community. Abe created the special task force, which includes the chief executive officers of eight large Japanese companies, and has charged it with advising on policies that could spur industrial competitiveness.

And in June, while an actual cut was not implemented, Abe announced that the framework for a future cut in the corporate tax rate was being installed. This has raised hope that the rate will be cut next year, or in 2015.

Abe has had the unenviable task of balancing the wishes of business with those of bodies such as the OECD during a time of national disaster recovery.

He heeded the OECD’s advice when the organisation in May said Japan is “poised for expansion” but that indirect tax hikes would be necessary to ensure economic growth in the country. As a result, the VAT rate will increase by three percentage points to 8% from April 2014.

Further reading

Japanese PM Abe still favours corporate tax cut

OECD calls for indirect tax hikes in Japan


The Global Tax 50 2013

« Previous

Tony Abbott

View the complete list

Next »

Tom Adams

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

Reckitt Benckiser is to divest its Essential Home business, which includes more than 70 brands, to private equity firm Advent International
In the first of a new series of weekly opinion pieces, ITR Editor Tom Baker reflects on the OECD’s attempts to sanitise the US’s brazen pillar two negotiations
The threat of 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods coincides with new Brazilian legal powers to adopt retaliatory economic measures, local experts tell ITR
The country’s chancellor appears to have backtracked from previous pillar two scepticism; in other news, Donald Trump threatened Russia with 100% tariffs
In its latest G20 update, the OECD also revealed tense discussions with the US where the ‘significant threat’ of Section 899 was highlighted
The tax agency has increased compliance yield from wealthy individuals but cannot identify how much tax is paid by UK billionaires, the committee also claimed
Saffery cautioned that documentation requirements in new government proposals must be limited if medium-sized companies are not exempted from TP
The global minimum tax deal is not viable without US participation, Friedrich Merz has argued
Section 899 of the ‘one big beautiful’ bill would have spelled disaster for many international investors into the US, but following its shelving, attention turns to the fate of the OECD’s pillars
DLA Piper’s co-head of tax for the US and Latin America tells ITR about her fervent belief in equal access to the law, loving yoga, and paternal inspirations
Gift this article