TAX WHAT YOU DON'T WANT NOT WHAT YOU DO:

 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that he would raise Japan's nationwide sales tax rate next year as planned, sweeping aside concerns that an increase might put the brakes on the country's nascent economic recovery. [...]

Trickier still is a plan pushed by Mr. Abe to hasten the expiration of a surcharge on Japan's corporate tax, implemented by the previous government to cover reconstruction costs in the wake of Japan's tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011. Removing the surcharge, originally set to expire in 2015, would bring Japan's effective corporate tax rate down to 35 percent from 38 percent. The move, Mr. Abe has said, would further bolster the country's competitiveness and encourage more foreign corporations to bring their operations to Japan.

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