Petrol prices drop dramatically in Japan
Petrol, gas, the stuff that powers most of our cars… whatever you want to call it, in Japan it has gone down in price in the past couple of days. Now is definitely the time to fill your tank in Japan as the price for a litre of regular unleaded has dropped by around Y20/$0.20 to around Y120/$1.20. The reason for this is that the government’s “temporary” fuel tax period has expired, and opposition parties didn’t let the tax continue. This ruling can be overruled on April 29th (when Prime Minister Fukuda takes the vote to the House of Representatives, where I think the government holds a majority), but at the moment drivers are filling their boots, and their cars. This seems to be one of the first things I have seen in Japanese politics in over 3 and a half years that has actually got people excited and happy.
Government officials are not as impressed though. They claim that this lack of a tax will cost the national budget Y1.7 trillion, and will cost local governments Y900bn. Now that’s a lot of massage chairs and baseball gloves! “It is quite deplorable that the tax surcharge expired,” said the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. “We need to get relevant tax legislation enacted as soon as possible.”
Me, along with countless other drivers in Japan, will beg to differ. That reminds me - I must go to fill up my car with petrol after work today…
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Yeah! Get it while you can. Like you said, after the end of April they are going to reinstate that tax. They have to, I mean, I think there are still a few government dorms with rooms that don’t have karaoke sets and large flat screen tvs. You wouldn’t want the beaurocrats to have to sing acapella, would you?