In The Japan News dated April 13, Wednesday I read an interesting article entitled "OECD had calls for tax info sharing, leadership from G-7".
According to the article, while there have been some political upheavals triggered by so-called "The Panama Papers" across the globe, the most important thing is transparency and beneficial ownership. Namely, people must declare the source of the revenue, and who owns the stocks in the companies that made profits.
The article also says that the most significant thing is that Panama, which has been the only large financial center that has refused to join the global financial summit, is now saying that they are going to join.
What I find interesting is the names of some Japanese companies are allegedly in the papers.
In my opinion, if transparency is so important as pointed out in the article, those Japanese companies must prove legality of any dealings documented in the paper. Also, if there should be anything against law, they must meet legal obligations accordingly.
This is because leniency to big corporations is enough to demoralize Japanese tax-payers who have been storing up mistrust and resentment toward law-makers who demand a salary raise when most commoners suffer cuts, and also towards bureaucrats who engage in active spending of the remaining budget when many households are struggling to make ends meet.
For example, if the names of the Japanese companies listed in the paper are for any reason not revealed, that is already a big blow to the ruling coalition government, because it would come across as protection of a potentially crime-ridden company by the government at the sacrifice of the essential human morality of honest and integrity.
On the other hand, if the government dictates that whichever companies that were involved in illegal tax avoidance should pay their penalties, it will be a great opportunity for the ruling government to regain public trust.
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