Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation

The liquor tax rate for the liquor listed in the following items (referred to as "whiskey, etc." in this Article) that, out of liquor taken out of a bonded area, a person entering Japan imports by carrying it at the time of entry, or imports by separate shipment pursuant to the provisions of Cabinet Order, is to be, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 23 of the Liquor Tax Act and the preceding Article, the amount per kiloliter specified in each of those items in accordance with the category of liquor listed in those items; provided, however, that this does not apply where that person has notified the director-general of the customs house having jurisdiction over the person's place of entry that the person does not wish the tax rates specified in those items to be applied to all of the whiskey, etc. that the person imports by carrying it at the time of entry or to all of the whiskey, etc. that the person imports by separate shipment, respectively.

liquor falling under No. 2203.00 of the Appended Table of the Customs Tariff Act (Act No. 54 of 1910) (limited to liquor for which the tax rate prescribed in a treaty concerning customs duties is free), or liquor falling under No. 2206.00 2(2)B(a) of that Table: 200,000 yen;

liquor falling under No. 2208.20, No. 2208.30, or No. 2208.90 1(1) of the Appended Table of the Customs Tariff Act (excluding liquor with an alcohol content of 50 percent or more as prescribed in Note 2 to Chapter 22 of that Table (excluding liquor put in containers of less than 2 liters)): 800,000 yen;

liquor falling under No. 2208.40, No. 2208.50, or No. 2208.60 of the Appended Table of the Customs Tariff Act: 500,000 yen;

liquor falling under No. 2208.70 of the Appended Table of the Customs Tariff Act: 400,000 yen.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph do not apply to whiskey, etc. in a quantity reaching a commercial quantity or to anything else specified by Cabinet Order.

Where a liquor manufacturer or a person that takes liquor out of a bonded area ships from a liquor manufacturing site, or takes out of a bonded area, liquor for which it has obtained, pursuant to the provisions of Cabinet Order, the approval of the director-general of the customs house having jurisdiction over the location of the port at which it is to be loaded, in order to load it onto an ocean-going vessel or aircraft, etc. as ship's stores or aircraft stores, the Liquor Tax Act and the Act on Collection, etc. of National Consumption Tax Imposed on Imported Goods apply, pursuant to the provisions of Order of the Ministry of Finance, by deeming the loading onto that ocean-going vessel or aircraft, etc. to be an export or a loading onto a foreign vessel or aircraft.

The provisions of Article 85, paragraphs (2) and (3) apply mutatis mutandis to liquor that, out of liquor loaded onto an ocean-going vessel or aircraft, etc. under the provisions of the preceding paragraph, has been shipped from a liquor manufacturing site. In this case, the term "Consumption Tax Act" in paragraph (2) of that Article is deemed to be replaced with "Liquor Tax Act"; the phrase "the location of the place where those designated goods came to fall under the case listed in each of those items, and the tax base of those designated goods is to be, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 28, paragraph (4) of that Act, the amount of consideration prescribed in paragraph (1) of that Article for the transfer at the time when those designated goods were transferred by the business operator under the provisions of the preceding paragraph" is deemed to be replaced with "the location of the place where that liquor came to fall under the case listed in each of those items"; and the phrase "Article 47, paragraph (2) of the Consumption Tax Act" in paragraph (3) of that Article is deemed to be replaced with "Article 30-3, paragraph (2) of the Liquor Tax Act".