Just after commenting on how signs have stopped proliferating, this sign appears:
The sign is a pretty stupid move by QB House (or at least the local management) as the couple of QB Houses I know have English instructions. The resultant thread is the usual predictable vocal overreaction, but the usual predictable inaction when it comes to actually doing anything about the sign.
I LOLCATicized the photo as without any action Mr Arudou’s site is becoming little more than a I CAN HAS CHEEZEBURGER of exclusionism. Mr Arudou, please read Eido Inoue’s reason for giving up commenting on your (and mine, as a side effect) blog.
Nice “New Year” pun, LOLcat!
Even if unintended, nice pun.
LB raises a valid point regarding some of the nonsense on that thread.
If Debito Arudou wanted to maintain some credibility, he should have pointed out to the first poster (“Johnny”) that 10% of the population is *not* NJ and 20% of resident tax is *not* paid by NJ. At the very least, he could have asked for citations, links or evidence. Why he didn’t do that, I don’t know, but I suspect it was because the poster generally agreed with Debito’s agenda and Debito — as usual — didn’t want to alienate his dwindling support base.
We can all be sure that if the poster didn’t agree with Debito, or if the poster was well-known, Debito would have said something, likely made a big deal about it, and maybe even spammed his friend’s lists to show how ignorant his critics are.
How Debito manages to keep his column at the Japan Times and still get few people to take him seriously, despite these contradictions, is a mystery to me.
Actually, on second reading of his comments, the poster might have been referring to the Minato ward in Tokyo. I’m still skeptical that 10% of Minato ward is NJ and they pay 20% of the residence taxes (?), but I’d liked to have seen the evidence for that assertion.
I think when I read the first comment, that he was referring to Minato-ku for population. The population numbers seem to be correct:
http://www.city.minato.tokyo.jp/joho/tokei/zinko/index.html
Last year, registered foreign population was about 21,792
Juki-net Japanese population was 205,430
Thus, in Minato-ku, foreign population is about 10% (I was surprised to.)
It would take quite a bit more digging to find the residence tax ratio but I feel that 20% is quite a bit of crap. I will have a think about it and *may* look later.
The 10% Foreign population/20% tax revenue claim appeared in a Tokyo Shimbun article in March last year, summarized on FG in a post called “Minato Ward Worried About Non-Payment of Tax by Foreign Residents “. The original newspaper link is dead. Here’s the full post:
“The Tokyo Shimbun reports (Japanese) that Minato ward in Tokyo is stepping up efforts to collect tax from foreign residents. The district includes Roppongi, Azabu, Shirogane, Takanawa, Mita, Akasaka etc and is home to many embassies and businesses. Foreigners comprise a little over 10% of the population of 215,055 (as of last month) but, interestingly, they contribute about 20% of total tax revenues. Around 2,000 foreigners in Minato are late-payers (which is a little under 10% of the foreigners in the ward) and the outstanding amount per head is around 50% higher than that for Japanese non-payers. The ward generally calls late-payers but now plans to introduce English speakers to also make calls to foreign residents who are behind in their payments. The article mentions that they also plan to produce more information in other languages so that residents are in no doubt about their tax paying responsibilities.”
Based on that, I would think then, that the 20% figure is the result of taxes Embassy assets and foreign business taxes. Income taxes from foreigners contributing 20% of the tax revenue is a bit hard to swallow unless all the natives in Minato-ku are wallowing in poverty.
Still wading through the Minato-ku tax reports but it doesn’t seem to break down where the revenue actually comes from (or else I am looking in the wrong place.)
I will give you b) but a) seems reasonably likely. Or at at least about a 1/3 chance:
http://www.city.minato.tokyo.jp/joho/tokei/zinko/gaikoku/kokusekibetu/index.html
Maybe they should had a Korean and Chinese version of the sign as well?
Other weirdness I have noticed:
On the buses from Shinagawa out to Immigration, there is a sign put up, warning about overstaying your visa and what would happen if you do etc. It is written in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. NO ENGLISH. That seems like discrimination to me!
I shouldn’t think many residents of Minato Ward are wallowing in poverty but many Japanese living there will be asset-rich rather than income-rich. It wouldn’t take too may super-sized financial industry bonuses to see foreigners accounting for a disproportionately large share of tax revenue. I shouldn’t think Shinjuku Ward – with a similar percentage of foreign residents – is in the same position.
Also, many expat contracts – which take in the very top earners – see companies paying their employees’ taxes for them; specifically, paying an additional sum to the individual equivalent to the year’s tax bill.
That payment counts as income so the tax bill rises in subsequent years. One reason to keep rotating top staff is that they can end up costing firms more in tax than they do in salary & bonuses.
If you have an expat and a local resident both earning the same nominal income, compounding means the tax bill for the expat will end up double that of his local counterpart within a few years, with no change in salary.
That’s certainly true.
I posted here because it seemed that, having rubbished a claim made on debito.org, some, like Greg and chuckers, were retreating to casting doubt, when it actually seems highly probable.
I agree that it isn’t particularly relevant to QB but a site which, quite justifiably, wants to correct errors there, should be happy to do the same here.
Considering how wealthy foreigners living in Minato ward, how many would actually even bother going to QB House?
Someone on an expat package probably goes to the same expensive hair salon that all the other expats in the area will be going to.
How do you think they stay so wealthy? They don’t waste their money on expensive hair salons.
I’m assuming this on my past experiences – When I studied abroad as a student, I lived across the street from an American family on a sweet expat package in Setagaya Ward.
The expat package they had was really sweet and were able to live a pretty lavish lifestyle.
Stupid cat. You don’t need a hair cut. Your hair is already short. Plus you don’t even speak Japanese.
Debito’s vigilance is ever-lasting and omnipotent.
Reading the comments on this over at that site was amazing.
“Debito’s vigilance is ever-lasting and omnipotent.”
Vigilant omnipotence.
???
A strange turn of phrase. Are we going to start comparing Debito to some of the statues of the angels and saints one finds in a Catholic Church now?
Woops. “Omnipresent.”
Anywho, what I mean to say is the guy is so gung-ho about what he does. He’s always finding some windmill to charge.