Japan: Liquor Tax Reform Japan

The Government of Japan revised the national liquor tax law in 2017. As a result, liquor tax rates for beer and wine will be changed in three stages over the next ten years. Both beer and beer-based alcoholic beverages, currently in different tax categories, will be unified in a single tax category in 2026. As a result, and beginning in 2020, the liquor tax on malt based beer (not less than twenty-five percent malt) will be lowered and the rate for beer-flavored liquors (less than twenty-five percent malt) will be increased. The liquor tax applied to wine will be increased in 2020 and again in 2023. For U.S. wines, those tax increases coincide with declining import duties on competing wines from Europe. The competitiveness of beer and wine from the United States may be affected. 

Japan: Liquor Tax Reform Japan