Skipping tax payments by showing your passport may become a thing of the past as government finds billions of yen have been improperly waived . International travelers in Japan can find some very impressive bargains, and not just because of a favorable exchange rate while the value of the yen is at historically low levels. Foreign tourists in Japan can also take advantage of the menzei , or sales tax exemption, system .
Basically, whenever someone buys something in Japan, there’s a 10-percent tax. There are a few exceptions for things like groceries, but in general, it’s 10 percent. So for example, if our ace reporter Mr.
Sato goes to Uniqlo to buy four of their new Pokémon T-shirts , priced at 1,500 yen each, he’d actually have to pay a total of 6,600 yen, 6,000 for the shirts and 600 yen in tax. However, if a foreign tourist goes to Uniqlo and buys those same four shirts? Their total comes to just 6,000 yen. That’s because the 10 percent tax isn’t technically a sales tax, it’s a consumption tax, and the law says that it can be waived for foreign visitors who will be consuming/using the items outside Japan, as long as their purchase total comes to more than 5,000 yen (approximately US$33).
▼ It’s like a 10-percent-off sale for every store in the country! Japan isn’t totally unique in this, as there are similar tax exemption systems for international travelers in other countries as well. However, Japan’s system is rather lenient . In many countries, fore.