{"id":94855,"date":"2026-10-22T12:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94855"},"modified":"2026-10-22T12:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:16:07","slug":"bears-and-pest-control-how-japan-is-spending-its-departure-tax-windfall-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94855","title":{"rendered":"Bears and pest control: how Japan is spending its departure tax windfall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/26\/a60232df-025f-4642-8982-99037f3ed3d6_57a24f56.jpg?itok=IwJQnTK-&amp;v=1787746121\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Billions of yen from a higher departure tax that <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Japan<\/span> plans to use to support tourism are being channelled into projects that critics say offer limited direct benefit to travellers, including measures to prevent bear attacks and eradicate an invasive beetle.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Japanese government expects to raise 130 billion yen (US$817.7 million) in the 2026 financial year from the International Tourist Tax, after increasing the levy last year on anyone leaving the country through an airport or seaport.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The cost of leaving Japan for foreign tourists and Japanese travellers alike rose from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen per person on July 1.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">During political debate on the increase \u2013 when a figure as high as 5,000 yen was discussed \u2013 the government emphasised that the additional funds were needed to address problems linked to chronic overtourism in some parts of the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/lifestyle-culture\/article\/3365349\/bears-and-pest-control-how-japan-spending-its-departure-tax-windfall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><br \/>\n<center><script>\n  atOptions = {\n    'key' : 'ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540',\n    'format' : 'iframe',\n    'height' : 90,\n    'width' : 728,\n    'params' : {}\n  };\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highrevenueformat.com\/ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540\/invoke.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Billions of yen from a higher departure tax that Japan plans to use to support tourism are being channelled into projects that critics say offer&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[11873,10797,12160,2251,18182,5486,5244,28989],"class_list":["post-94855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-bears","tag-control","tag-departure","tag-japan","tag-pest","tag-spending","tag-tax","tag-windfall","wpcat-4840-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}