May duty-free sales at Japan department stores hits new high

With how weak the yen is, what’s the point of duty free shopping now? Just collect tax revenues from tourists, they’ll still be getting bargains…

Seven billion yen, about 45 million USD in one month in lost revenue, plus the admin cost of refunding the tax. That's just at department stores.

That would fund a lot of free wifi for tourists, or extra desks at immigration, or whatever people say the government should be providing.

Is so nice to be a foreign tourist in Japan now. Not that you purchase products way cheaper than is your country, due to very weak curency, you get 10% back because of this "duty-free" nonsense. Basically the tourists enjoy life in Japan, tax free,even if they use all Japan's facilities.

Imagine how much better than national bottom line would be if this was abolished.

A big thank you to the Chinese,Koreans and Taiwanese that are doing their bit to make the Japanese a little bit richer…