Director-general of a customs house

The head of a customs house (税関), a local office of the Ministry of Finance (Act for Establishment of the Ministry of Finance, Article 12, paragraph (1)). A customs house collects customs duties and controls imported and exported goods (Article 16, paragraph (1), with Article 4, paragraph (1), items 25 and 26), and it also levies and collects the internal taxes (内国税, taxes other than customs duties, such as consumption tax) that a law puts in its hands (Article 16, paragraph (1), item (iv)). For consumption tax that means taxable goods (課税貨物) taken out of a bonded area (保税地域, a zone where imported goods are held before customs clearance): unless another law or a treaty exempts them, the person taking them out files the return with the director-general of a customs house, not with a tax office (Consumption Tax Act, Article 47, paragraphs (1) and (2)), and where the customs authorities fix the tax themselves, that director-general collects it when the goods are taken out (Article 50, paragraph (2)).