JAPAN: Tax Reforms & more – 24th Dec 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 24th of December twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

Kicking off this edition, on Friday the 19th, Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, approved tax reform guidelines for the next fiscal year. Some of these reforms include raising the minimum taxable annual income from 1.6 million yen (over 10,000 dollars) to 1.78 million yen (about 11,400 dollars) and increasing the basic deduction for taxpayers earning up to 6.65 million yen (about 42,000 dollars).

Another reform that will begin in January twenty twenty-seven is an increase in income tax to fund defense spending.

In an update to a story from a show from earlier this year, Mie Prefecture in western Japan is thinking of no longer hiring foreign nationals for prefectural government jobs from fiscal twenty twenty-six. The prefecture will likely survey about 10,000 residents before deciding.

While it removed the Japanese nationality requirement in nineteen ninety-nine to promote inclusion, officials are now worried that letting in new non-Japanese hires might put sensitive information at risk—things like residents’ personal information, agricultural data, and anti-disaster measures.

Only nine foreign nationals have been hired since two thousand five, mainly as medical specialists. Eleven other prefectures still allow foreign nationals to apply for local government positions.

On that note about foreigners in Japan, the central government is planning to put a cap on the maximum number of foreign workers it will accept in the first two years of a new training and employment program. The program will start in fiscal twenty twenty-seven with a cap of 426,000 foreign workers and will replace the current technical intern system, which a lot of people have criticized.

The government says it’s trying to make sure that workers aren’t stuck in short-term positions forever and can get access to longer-term employment more easily. Combined with the Type 1 specified skilled worker visa, the total number of foreign workers in Japan will likely be over a million by twenty twenty-eight.

Up next, the education ministry reported on Monday the 22nd that 7,000 public school teachers were on leave for mental disorders in fiscal twenty twenty-four, almost one percent of all teachers, only slightly below the previous year’s record high.

Mental illness accounted for over three-quarters of sick leave cases, with many affected teachers having worked at their current school for less than two years. Most taking leave for mental issues were in their thirties. Some of the main problems that created stress for these teachers were issues with teaching students, workplace relationships, and too much paperwork. Newly hired teachers quitting within a year also hit a record high.

In imperial news, Emperor Emeritus Akihito turned ninety-two on Tuesday the 23rd. The Imperial Household Agency said his health is stable despite a heart diagnosis in May. Over the past year, he and Empress Michiko reflected on the eightieth anniversary of World War II, offering prayers for the war dead and making official visits and broadcasts.

Even though the emperor is mainly a figurehead, he’s very popular among the public, with many online offering him congratulations on reaching ninety-two.

Speaking of World War II, Japanese anti-nuclear and atomic bomb survivor groups protested after a national security official said Japan should have nuclear weapons. The Japan NGO Network for Nuclear Weapons Abolition group visited the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday the 23rd and told officials that they should stick to Japan’s Three Non-Nuclear Principles. The group also said that the government should quickly sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a legally binding international agreement not to have and eventually get rid of nuclear weapons.

Officials did not comment on the treaty, but said that Japan would stick to its Three Non-Nuclear Principles. Representatives of one anti-nuclear group said that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi herself should also clearly reaffirm Japan’s non-nuclear stance.

Next summer, the transport ministry said it will start using a new bidding system that will favor construction companies with science- and technology-based heat wave countermeasures for public works projects. Measures can include remote machinery operation, shortened summer work periods, and heatstroke risk monitoring.

Contractors will also be allowed more flexible schedules, such as suspending work during peak heat or shifting hours. After trying out the system for some projects next year, the ministry hopes that it can implement it fully from twenty twenty-seven for even more civil engineering projects, excluding emergency work.

While construction might be doing fine, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, is in trouble. On Monday the 22nd, its eighth H3 rocket failed to deliver a satellite into orbit. The JAXA president apologized at a press conference, saying that the agency won’t be able to launch any more satellites or probes until they figure out why the H3 rockets keep failing. Currently, JAXA thinks the problem might be second-stage engine or control system problems, but they are still investigating.

With the Epsilon S rocket also delayed, Japan doesn’t really have any main rockets it can use, which means the country’s space program is going to be on a bumpy ride until it can get straightened out. Meanwhile, other countries like the US and China are doing very well with their space programs, which may leave Japan in the proverbial star dust. JAXA’s pausing launches will also force Japanese space startups to rely on foreign launch services for the time being.

Since we mentioned the United States, Bill Emmott, a writer and international affairs consultant, wrote an essay saying that the current US administration seems to look at its allies based on what they can do for the US in the short term, rather than doing what is needed to keep long-term partnerships strong.

For example, even though Trump said the US would support Japan if China threatened Taiwan, it was mostly just a single statement and not much else. Since China has continued to demand that Japan roll back its remarks about Taiwan, which we covered in previous shows, and the US hasn’t made any other moves, Emmott says that it makes it seem like the US might not act if China were to ramp up its actions against Japan even more.

Read the full essay on the Mainichi newspaper website with the link in the show notes!

In tech news, Japan is introducing an AI-powered surveillance system called B Alert to prevent bear encounters. The system does this using heat-sensing cameras and cloud-based AI to filter video footage for bears near residential areas and then sends email alerts to officials. This way, it can get warnings to locals faster than ever.

Hokuriku Electric Power and Hokutsu created B Alert, and many places across the country are using it now that bear sightings have gone up so much.

Across the Sea of Japan, South Korean media said that police are investigating a Japanese woman in her fifties for allegedly attempting to break into the home of Jung Kook, a member of the famous pop boy band group, BTS, in Seoul. Police believe she repeatedly tried to unlock his door last month, but haven’t questioned her yet since she doesn’t live in South Korea.

This case follows an unrelated but recent incident in which another Japanese woman was indicted for indecent assault involving Jin, another BTS member.

And to close this edition, the Osaka Light Festival is putting on a beautiful illumination display from sunset until after midnight. For this event, colorful lights are wrapped around the trees lining Midosuji Street and Nakanoshima in Osaka, western Japan, and you’ll be able to keep seeing them until the 31st of December. Some places along the streets will also have projections on display for extra fun and entertainment.

Midosuji Street is a one-minute walk from Hommachi Station, while Nakanoshima is a four-minute walk from both Oebashi and Naniwabashi Station.

For more information, click on the link in the show notes!

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Mata Ne!