The national burden is the ratio of the total of social security fees (insurance/taxes) collected plus the total of national and local taxes to national income.

Japan’s total national burden, what it needs to collect in taxes and social insurance premiums, is compared to the following 6 industrialized nations.

6.  Sweden - 71.4%!

5.  France - 68.2%

4.  Germany- 58.4%

3.  U.K. -   49.3%

2.  U.S.A. - 37.8%

and

1.  Japan -  35.3%

In other words, the average Japanese feels less burdened by taxes and the social security system than all the others.

Come to think of it, I never sweated paying my share of taxes all that much when I was in Japan. I did, however, do my share of complaining when it came to paying into the social security coffers.

Japan calculates how much a person makes and then a percentage of that. The self employed are really taken to the cleaners because their business income is the standard for the calculation even though they don’t take that much home. Ouch!

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