Japan No Longer Will Allow Foreign Students Purchase Duty-Free Goods

Above, a duty-free shop at Narita Airport. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The political parties and government of Japan have agreed to tighten up eligibility for making duty-free purchases in Japan.

They will no longer allow foreign students to buy duty-free goods.

The Japan Times reported:

The government and ruling parties have decided to abolish the system allowing foreign students and other long-term residents to make duty-free purchases in response to suspected cases of reselling and complaints of cumbersome eligibility checks, sources said Sunday.

Under the current system, which will be revised as part of tax reforms for fiscal 2022, foreign students staying long-term in Japan and not working part-time can make tax-free purchases within six months of entering the country.

Criticism has arisen over the labor-intensive checks duty-free stores have to perform at the time of sale to confirm a student is not working, while others have complained it is unfair that stores with lax screening procedures end up attracting more customers.

The National Tax Agency also discovered many suspicious "binge buying" cases by foreign students after introducing a system to digitize purchaser information in April last year.

It believes they may be buying large quantities of duty-free goods to resell at higher prices, including a 10% consumption tax, to make a profit.

As part of tax reforms, the government and the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party plan to narrow the eligibility of duty-free purchases to tourists and those with a short-term visa of 90 days or less, instead of nonresidents under the country's foreign exchange and foreign trade law, according to the sources.

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