Press translations [Japan]. Economic Series 0039, 1945-12-03.

Extracts:

Only three months remain, that is, the end of February, before arrival of the crisis in the June-July food demand and supply situation, and the Government is earnestly engaged in pushing preparations for food imports in accordance with the directive of 20 November from MacARTHUR'S Headquarters.

What is considered worthy of note in this connection is the clear declaration that the Allies are now conducting investigations in regard to the food situation in the Far East and that surplus food in areas which have little to do with any serious impediment to the world food supply will be spared for JAPAN. As a result, JAPAN can look forward to rice imports from KOREA, FORMOSA and the southern regions.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in this connection submitted a proposal to MacARTHUR'S Headquarters regarding the volume of food to be imported from several countries. This suggestion is nothing more than a hope on the part of the Ministry; the Allied Powers have the right to make a decision.

The volume of imports as proposed by the Ministry follows: 800,000 tons of Korean rice, 200,000 tons of Formosan rice, 500,000 tons of Manchurian beans, 250,000 tons of French Indo-Chinese rice, 100,000 tons of Siamese rice, and 1,205,000 tons of American or Canadian wheat or wheat flour, totalling 3,000,000 tons.

Full Translation:

With General MacARTHUR'S Headquarters on 24 November authorizing the Japanese Government to import food, cotton, petroleum, salt, etc., the Government decided to establish a Board of Trade at yesterday's Cabinet meeting and announced their decision as follows:

• 1.The Board of Trade shall be made into a bureau independent of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• 2.The majority of officials of the Board shall be appointed from among able and experienced civilians, but some shall be chosen from among officials of the Government offices concerned.
• 3.The Board of Trade shall function as a Government organ to assume an all around control over the exports and imports of the country and shall be responsible to the Allied Supreme Headquarters
  
  
  

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  with regard to the exports and imports on a unified system.
• 4.In addition to trade affairs previously under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Board shall handle the import of food and salt, heretofore controller by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Finance Ministry, respectively.
• 5.The distribution of imports shall be effected according to the old system. As the Board is responsible to the Allied Supreme Headquarters, it shall have a committee comprising competent officials of the Government offices concerned, which shall survey and discuss important affairs relating to the distribution plan of imported materials and the carrying out of the plan with the object of making clear the actual situation with regard to the fair distribution of imported materials.

Full Translation:

The supreme command of the Allied Forces has issued a directive to the Japanese Government for the imposition of taxes on war profits and capital. The significance of both taxes is made clear by an announcement of SCAP as well as a statement issued by Finance Minister, Viscount SHIEUSAWA. The new taxes are revolutionary in scale and character since they are regarded as marking the final ending of the war. They also serve as a means of reconstructing financial, economic and social institutions of the country.

Though they are simply called taxes and their collection method is that of the usual tax, the new taxes, unlike ordinary ones, mean the drastic absorption of capital. As seen by similar examples in foreign countries, this kind of emergency tax is levied temporarily during times of emergency. The new taxes have as their chief characteristic an incomparablly high rate. Total amount of state revenue to be collected by their enforcement is estimated at over 100,000 million Yen, which is 20 to 22 per cent of the total capital of the entire nation, the latter aggregating between 450,000 and 500,000 million Yen.

From a financial point of view, the revenue to be collected by the new taxes will be distributed between the special bond liquidating funds, and will be used for the liquidation of national bonds by way of exchanging State deposits at the Bank of JAPAN for bonds. The amount of bonds issued now totals 130,000 million yen, and the figure will reach the 150,000 million yen mark by the end of the current fiscal year. The estimated sum which the government has to assume as liability for war compensation or war insurances is 56,500 million yen. when this amount is added, the total aggregates 200,000 million yen, which will be fifty percent covered by the revenue to be obtained from introduction of new taxes.

The following are the factors which the government must consider in carrying out the anticipated taxes: Collection of taxes should be conducted in a strict and fair way. At the same time an effort to prevent any tendency toward unfairness and unequality should be made; to forestall inflation as in the past, efforts must be made to increase production of necessities such as food and coal, and to maintain the

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ITEM 3 (Continued)

value of currency; and adequate steps should be taken to stabilize the prices of commodities, and wages. Unless such efforts are made in conjunction with enforcement of the new levy, the project will lose its significance, and may result in the liquidation of the 100,000 yen bonds. That will mean an increase in taxes amounting to 3,500 million yen for interest.

Thus, even if the new taxes are put into force, there will still be left bonds amounting to 100,000 million yen, and the rehabilitation problems still to be solved. Other measures must be taken when the situation comes to such a stage. Though details of the new taxes are not available since the draft bill first must be submitted to the supreme Command of the Allied Forces at the end of December, the newly-sponsored taxes will have the following characteristics: Tax payers will be both individuals and corporations for both type taxes. They will be levied upon all kinds of properties, both movable and immovable, cash, deposits, bonds, etc, excepting furnitures or cooking utensils essential for domestic use; in the war profits tax, the Government is understood not to include the increase of wealth seen in the following cases: Increase of wealth gained by normal means as in peacetime or increase of wealth by the decline of the value of currency. Ordinary depostis and inherited wealth (increase of wealth during war time is exempted) are included under "normal gain" above. Adequate measures for the readjustment of prices of commodities will be necessary in admitting the cases covered by "decline of value of currency."

To estimate capital, a committee will be appointed from among well-known civilians, and the committer will be divided into central and local sub-committees. The central committee will decide fundamental policies in regard to the estimate of capital, while the local ones will be established in town where revenue offices are located. Estimates will be conducted on an individual basis, and will be decided in accordance with the applications to be submitted in cases both of individuals and judicial officials. Ledgers of land and property, investigative data from [illegible]nking organizations, income, taxes, incorporation taxes, and all other available information will be utilized in the estimates. Immovable property will be estimated in principle by the rental costs, but consideration will be paid for differences of local conditions caused by the war.

The most difficult estimate will be that of war profits. We have to clarify (1) What is the normal profit? and (2) How to readjust the relationship between properties and money, in case the government does not admit the increase of wealth caused by the decline of the monetary value as war profits. In assigning the war profits tax, it is understood that the tax will be collected mainly from reserve funds or undivided profits. In such cases, firms which paid many dividends must decrease their capital, in order to meet the demand, it is estimated. In levying taxes on paid-up capital, the taxation will be duplicated both in individual and in corporation capital. In order to avoid such duplication, taxes will be levied on individuals in such cases.

The date of taxation on war profits goes back to the outbreak of the CHINA Incident, but there will be some differences in fixing the date between individuals and corporations in accordance with investigative data. The end of the term to be covered will be fixed

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ITEM 3 (Continued)

at the time of the enforcement of the new taxes. Consequently, the tax will be levied on the amount of increase witnessed between the beginning and the end of the term to be covered. The capital tax will be levied on all capital at the end of the war-profits tax term.

The rate of new taxes, in view of their nature, will be very high, though it will for formally decided later in proportion to the amount of financial revenues, in compliance with the directive from the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces. The war profits tax should be levied on all profits gained during the war, out it is anticipated that some 10,000 yen will be exempted from the levy, due to technical difficulties in collecting.

Capital levy will bring more revenue than the war profits tax, and a great amount from among many classes of other people will be collected. In fixing the tax free-limit, 30,000 to 50,000 yen limit is strongly advocated at present. Wealth under the present condition mostly consists of cash, deposits, and bonds, and delay in tax payment will not be permitted. Payment by property instead of money will be permitted, unless it is hard to manage. In order to check tax evasion, all cash, deposits and bonds will be registered as one unit, which covers all family members in an individual household. In connection with the new taxes, new yen notes will be issued. The issue of such notes aims at the collection of all cash, increase of deposits and a foundation for the validity of new yen notes.

FRANCE, issued new notes between 4 June and 15 June of this year, and fixed 15 June as the day to decide the capital levy. The relationship between the new taxes and new yen notes will produce results similer to that in FRANCE. It is also recalled that BELGIUM succeeded in freezing a certain percentage of old notes. This was enforced at a time of the exchange of new notes.

Extracts:

Following Minister of Agriculture and Forestry MATSUMUSA's statement that a special ration of fertilizers would be made to the farmers who completed their delivery of farm products, a concrete plan in this connection was made and distributed to every prefectural governor on 28 November simultaneously by the Chief of the Foodstuff Management Bureau and the Chief of the Agricultural Management bureau.

According to the plan, fertilizers to be rationed are Sulphates and Calcium Nitrates, and the amount allotted to the farmer for delivery of all but unutilized food will be standardized. The ration plan will start by the end of February in HOKKAIDO, TOHOKU and EOKURIKU, and in other regions by the end of March. For every farmer whose delivery exceeds the standard amount by more than 70 per cent will have a ration of one kan of fertilizer, and if the delivery amount exceeds the alloted amount by more than 100 per cent, and if this surplus amount is one bag(hyo), the farmer will get three kan of fertilizer as a special ration.

To put this system of rationing into effect, a special ration coupon system for fertilizer will be started. According to this system, a farmer gets his coupon, which is issued by the prefectural governor,

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ITEM 4 (Continued)

through the Agrarian Association, in exchange for the delivery of the rice crop. The coupon gives him the right to take over a fixed amount of fertilizer from the Agrarian Association at the official price. Those who completed their delivery in December of this year will receive their ration between January and March of next year. Those delivering in February will get their ration between February and March, and those delivering in March, will draw their reation by the end of next May.

This ration will be made only to those who are cultivating the land and not to landowners. In case the delivery has been made in the name of the landowner, the special ration of fetilizer must be made to the tenant farmer. The reason for the special ration being given to those who have delivered more than 70 per cent of their delivery amount is to distribute the fertilizer as fairly as possible among farmers, not because the Government regards this amount as sufficient.

DISTRIBUTION "X"

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