HIS MONTH IN TAX Key items only
- Final corporate tax and consumption tax returns due for companies with an August fiscal year-end
- Interim corporate tax and consumption tax returns due for companies with a February fiscal year-end
- Third installment of individual resident tax (due date set by municipal ordinance)
- Consumption tax: input tax credit for purchases from tax-exempt suppliers falls from 80% to 70%
- Consumption tax: for sole proprietors with sales of ¥10 million or less, the transitional “20% special rule” becomes a “30% special rule” (the special rule for corporations ends)
- Liquor tax revision: beer down ¥9.10; happoshu up ¥7.26; chu-hi up ¥7.00 (per 350 ml can)
Withholding slips for retirement income
For any retirement allowance paid during 2026, a withholding slip must now be filed with the tax office for every recipient, regardless of the amount. Retirement by reason of death follows a separate procedure. Please make sure this is not overlooked.
The Showa Playbook Won’t Get You Through This
New rules on workplace harassment take effect this month. Employers who dismiss them as a sign of national softness may be missing what they actually ask of us.
And just like that, it is October. All I remember of September is the rain, so I am hoping for a run of clear, pleasant days. Three months are left in the year, and the busy season is gathering speed. Now is the moment to look back at what you meant to finish before December and start clearing the list.
As the calendar above shows, this October brings a cluster of tax changes. But the most consequential shift for many employers may not be a tax at all. On the labor side, companies are now required to take concrete measures against two kinds of harassment: harassment by customers, and sexual harassment of job applicants. In practice, that means stating a clear company policy, making sure employees know it, and putting a system in place where people can raise concerns.
It is worth pausing on what “harassment” actually means. It is conduct toward another person — bullying, intimidation, needling — that ends up violating their dignity. The version most familiar in Japanese workplaces is power harassment: someone higher in the hierarchy going beyond the legitimate scope of the job and causing a subordinate mental or physical distress.The crucial point is this: even if the person acting meant no harm, it counts as harassment if the person on the receiving end experiences it as distress.
For anyone running a business, understanding this is essential. Some will bristle. “All this talk about harassment is exactly why Japan is going soft,” I can hear a few of you saying. I understand the reflex. But let us think about it calmly for a moment.
If the standard is how the other person receives it, what exactly are you supposed to do? The answer begins with understanding and conversation. When something seems off with an employee, speak to them first and find out how they are doing. The second step is accepting that values have changed. “Let’s pull together as one company and break through this crisis!” is a Showa-era rallying cry. Employees are individuals, each with their own strengths. The better approach is to understand those strengths, assign people to the work where they can use them fully, and let the owner keep an eye on the whole while leading the charge through hard times.
At the root of all this is a simple disposition: respect for the other person. And the quality of the work need not rest on people alone — tools such as AI can carry part of that load. Owners, too, are being asked not to pine for the old days, but to take on what is new, however demanding it may be. The question for each of us is whether we will treat that as a burden imposed from outside, or as a chance to build a workplace people actually want to stay in.
Keiji Sakai is a certified tax accountant in Matsuyama, Ehime, and director of the Tax Research Institute of the Shikoku Tax Accountants Association.
