Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/471

In January, 1876, the Imperial Government of Japan first brought the taxation of tobacco under a systematic regulation by putting into operation the newly-enacted ‘Law Relating to the Tobacco Tax.’

Notwithstanding frequent amendments, the system of tobacco taxation thus introduced remained for some years—many years—practically unchanged, the essential feature being the imposition of a stamp duty on manufactured tobacco in addition to the business tax which the manufacturers of and dealers in tobacco had to pay in common with other classes of tradesmen.

For the successful prosecution of the various important public undertakings after the Chino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, it was considered by the Government necessary to increase the national income. This necessity was met on the one hand by the imposition of new taxes, and on the other by the increase of the existing taxes.

Of the old forms of taxation thus readjusted, the most extensively affected was the Tobacco Tax, the sale of leaf tobacco being made the Government monopoly under the ‘Law of Leaf Tobacco Monopoly,’ which was enacted in March, 1896. On the coming into force of that law, the previous law of taxation on tobacco was abolished.

The principal points of the new law were as follows:

Every cultivator of tobacco-leaves is required, every year, to submit to the Government a written statement about the area of his tobacco-plantation.

He is required to have the leaves examined by Government officials, both before they are harvested and after they are dried.

After they have been dried, the leaves must be brought to places indicated by the Government by the last day of March of the next year at latest.

The Government, on inspecting and judging of the qualities and classes of these leaves, pays an appropriate compensation to their cultivators, according to a schedule previously fixed and notified by the Government.

The tobacco-leaves thus handed over to the Government are to be sold at Government prices previously fixed for them.

The cultivators of tobacco-leaves are strictly prohibited