Japan
A. Progress in the implementation of the minimum standard
Japan has 79 tax agreements in force as reported in its response to the Peer Review questionnaire. Fifty-seven of those agreements comply with the minimum standard.
Japan signed the MLI in 2017 and deposited its instrument of acceptance on 26 September 2018. The MLI entered into force for Japan on 1 January 2019. Subsequently, Japan made additional notifications to expand its list of agreements to be covered under the MLI.1 The agreements modified by the MLI come into compliance with the minimum standard once the provisions of the MLI take effect.
Japan has not listed its agreements with Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Sri Lanka, the United States and Zambia, which have not joined the MLI or have joined the MLI but not listed the agreements with Japan in their definitive list of reservations and notifications under the MLI. These agreements will therefore not, at this stage, be modified by the MLI. Japan indicated that it would list such agreements once the treaty partners join the MLI and list the agreements with Japan in their definitive list of reservations and notifications under the MLI except for the cases where the agreement will be updated through bilateral negotiations to be compliant with the minimum standard.
Japan has signed a bilateral complying instrument with respect to its agreement with Azerbaijan.
Japan indicated in its response to the Peer Review questionnaire that the agreements with Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Sri Lanka and Zambia do not give rise to material treaty-shopping concerns for Japan.
Japan is implementing the minimum standard through the inclusion of the preamble statement and the PPT for its compliant agreements with Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China (People’s Republic of), Czechia, Ecuador*, Egypt, Finland, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Morocco, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay. Japan is implementing the minimum standard through the inclusion of the preamble statement and the PPT combined with the LOB for its compliant agreements with Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.2
← 1. Japan made additional notifications to expand its list of agreements to be covered under the MLI on 14 February 2020 (Qatar), on 22 July 2020 (Oman), on 21 April 2022 (Thailand) and on 20 June 2023 (Viet Nam).
← 2. For its agreements listed under the MLI, Japan is implementing the preamble statement (Article 6 of the MLI) and the PPT (Article 7 of the MLI). Japan has made a reservation pursuant to Article 6(4) of the MLI not to apply Article 6(1) of the MLI with respect to agreements that already contain the relevant preamble language (covering one agreement).