Japan’s been successful at getting tourists to the country. Perhaps too successful. To fund overtourism countermeasures, the Japanese government is now weighing raising a key tax on people returning home. Some Japanese citizens, however, are up in arms that the tax will apply to them as well.
No concrete proposals yet
According to Yomiuri Shimbun, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is considering raising the departure tax (出国税; shukkokuzei), which is currently a mere 1,000 yen (USD $6.67). Various proposals floated within the party are throwing out numbers between 3,000 yen ($20) and 5,000 yen ($33). The tax is collected as part of one’s departure ticket.
The amount would bring Japan in line with other countries that have decently-sized departure taxes. Australia, currently charges AUD $70 – the second-highest in the world next to Britain. Japan’s proposal would bring it closer in line to countries like Egypt, Jamaica, and Canada.
The government would use funds to address overtourism, which is accelerating even as Japan’s government hopes to welcome 60 million visitors a year by 2030. (It’s currently welcoming around 36 million yearly.) The money could help improve airport facilities, public transportation, and the creation of faster and cheaper routes to less-congested regions of the country.
The Japanese government, regional governments, and even private companies are already evolving strategies for overtourism. Kyoto announced last year it was launching a bus service specifically for tourists to reduce crowding on public transit. Japan is also allowing gig economy rideshare for the first time in select regions to offset the boom in unlicensed (so-called “white”) taxis in recent years.
Japanese citizens would need to pay it, too
Not everyone’s happy with the proposal, however. Some – particularly on Japan’s political right – are upset that the tax would apply to Japanese citizens as well. And I can’t say I blame them.
“Please create a system that assesses this only to foreign tourists entering the country,” one griped in a comment on Yahoo! News JP that garnered 31,000 likes. The comment charges that Japan’s Ministry of Finance is implementing the tax in the laziest way possible.
While inbound tourism has boomed, Japanese outbound tourism is only 70.3% of the total it was in 2019. Few Japanese people have passports – and, with the weak yen, fewer than ever feel it’s economical to travel abroad. A hefty departure tax could disincentivize foreign travel even more.
There seems to be a growing anti-tax movement in Japan, particularly on the right, as inflation and wage stagnation are leaving more people here in economic straits. A recent spike in staple goods such as rice and even cabbage has left many consumers shell-shocked.
Recently, the LDP, Komeito, and the Innovation Party approved a new budget that would increase subsidies for high school course fees, essentially making the base costs for high school free. The deal has led to an outpouring of anger on Japan’s right, where some are calling the Innovation Party, which spearheaded the proposal, “the enemy of the people” (国民の敵; kokumin no teki).
I think it would be a huge mistake if the tax increase applies to Japanese citizens as well. Japan is already struggling to support getting more young people overseas, with Tokyo recently weighing a program to help fund study abroad and counteract the effects of the weak yen. Besides stoking anger among an already cash-strapped populace, forcing this tax on Japanese citizens would dissuade even more from having rich experiences abroad.
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