Press translations [Japan]. Economic Series 0039, 1945-12-03.
Date3 December, 1945
RepositoryRauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
Call Numbereconomic-0196
Call NumberDS801 .S81
Persistent Identifier
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ECONOMIC SERIES: 39
ITEM 1 Japan Looking Forward to Rice Imports from Korea and Southern Regions - Asahi
Shimhun - 28 Nov 45.
Translator: S. Okuyama.
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.
ITEM 2 Board of Trade, Headed by Civilian, to Be Created - Asahi Shimbun - 28 Nov
45. Translator: S.
Okuyama.
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
-
ECONOMIC SERIES: 39 (Continued)
ITEM 2 (Continued)
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.
ITEM 3 The War Profits and Capital Tax-Comment - Nippon Sangyo Eeizai - 28 Nov 45.
Translator: T.
Okamura.
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
- 2 -
ECONOMIC SERIES: 39 (Continued)
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
- 3 -
ECONOMIO SERIES: 39 (Continued)
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.
ITEM. 4 Concrete Plan for The Completion of Food Delivery - Nippon Sangyo Keizai -
29 Nov.45. Translator:
K. Yasuo.
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,
- 4-
ECONOMIC SERIES: 39 (Continued)
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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