2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Research on the Government Tax Commission

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20530100
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Politics
Research Institution	The University of Tokyo
Principal Investigator	YAMAZAKI Yukiko The University of Tokyo, 社会科学研究所, 特任研究員 (10436602)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	政府税制調査会 / 税制
Research Abstract	This research aims at elucidating the role that the Government Tax Commission played in decision-making on the Japanese tax system, while focusing on the politics of revenue formation. This focus is important because Japan has accumulated an exceptionally large public-sector debt compared to other advanced countries. The research on this issue revealed the following : (1) the Government Tax Commission sought to resolve fiscal problems from a relatively impartial, specialist standpoint ; (2) the Government Tax Commission created the major frame of tax system through crafting the overall Outline of Tax Reforms, while details were largely determined by the Liberal Democratic Government ; (3) the Ministry of Finance and the Government Tax Commission largely agreed in their views on the tax system, but the Ministry was also divided internally on substantive matters ; and (4) the influence of economic internationalization has become evident in the tax-system's decision-making process, especially since the 1980s.