If a person whose spouse does not have any
job would be awarded hundreds of thousands of yen, who is going to work at the
cost of leaving kids or housekeeping efforts? Japanese society has such a
strange system called “spouse exemption” as tax deduction for jobless spouse.
Recognizing serious contradiction of that system with the policy mobilizing as
much people as possible to implement its economic policy called Abenomics,
Shinzo Abe administration embarked on considering abolishment of spouse
exemption.
Spouse exemption system is to deduct ¥380
thousand from the income that will be the basis for calculation of income tax,
if the spouse annually earns ¥1.03 million or less. In the case that the spouse
has ¥1.04 million of income, the deduction would not be applied. He or she
would not rather work for ¥1.04 million and rather finish the work before ¥1.03
million. They call it “great wall of ¥1.03 million.”
Mainichi Shimbun reported that the Chairman
of Taxation Research Council of Liberal Democratic Party, Yo-ichi Miyazawa,
indicated introducing new system, which would be applied to all couples. In the
new system, a married couple can receive certain amount of tax deduction
regardless their income or way of working. The system will draw a line of
limitation in annual income of the recipient to support the people with lower
income.
It is fair to say that spouse deduction is
obsolete as a system in the time when husband would be working in office and
wife had to stay home. To maintain conservative value to keep traditional
family, the government has been supported housewives without any specific job.
However, the number of families with jobless housewife has declined from 11.1
millions in 1980 to 6.8 millions in 2015. Now double income families have
overtaken jobless housewives.
One thing obvious is that Japanese economy
cannot be improved without positive participation of women in every aspect of
the society. Frustrated with slow progress of Abenomics, Abe introduced new
agenda called “reform in the way of working.” He added new post of Minister in
his Cabinet for the issue.
However, the key cannot be found in
taxation system, but in a principle of justly rewarded labor. That is why Abe
is introducing same-labor-same-wage policy. Labor market in Japan has small liquidity,
allowing officially hired workers a great privilege for their stable status.
Old workers with little motivation on their job always exclude young and
vigorous ones from the offices.
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