Japan
A. Progress in the implementation of the minimum standard
Japan has 73 tax agreements in force, as reported in its response to the Peer Review questionnaire. Thirty of those agreements, the agreements with Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador*, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, comply with the minimum standard.
Japan signed the MLI in 2017 and deposited its instrument of ratification on 26 September 2018. The MLI entered into force for Japan on 1 January 2019. Japan has not listed its agreements with Armenia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Georgia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, the United States, Viet Nam and Zambia. These agreements with the Inclusive Framework members will therefore not, at this stage, be modified by the MLI.
Japan also signed a bilateral complying instrument with respect to one of its agreements, the agreement with Spain.
Japan indicated in its response to the Peer Review questionnaire that the agreements not listed under the MLI were concluded with treaty partners that had not ratified the MLI or that had joined the MLI but not listed the agreements with Japan. Japan indicated that it would list such agreements once the treaty partners ratify the MLI or list the agreements with Japan. For instance, Japan listed its agreements with Oman and Qatar upon their ratifications.
Japan is implementing the minimum standard through the inclusion of the preamble statement and the PPT for its compliant agreements with Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Finland, India, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Singapore, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates. Japan is implementing the minimum standard through the inclusion of the preamble statement and the PPT combined with the LOB for its compliant agreements with Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia and the United Kingdom.1
The agreements modified by the MLI come into compliance with the minimum standard once the provisions of the MLI take effect.
Note
← 1. For 39 of its agreements listed under the MLI, Japan is implementing the preamble statement (Article 6 of the MLI). For 39 of its agreements listed under the MLI, Japan is implementing the PPT (Article 7 of the MLI). Japan made a reservation pursuant to Article 6(4) of the MLI not to apply Article 6(1) of the MLI with respect to agreements, which already contain the relevant preamble language. One of Japan’s agreements is within the scope of this reservation.