July 11, 2025
Akahata ‘current’ column
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, had a wedding ceremony in Venice, Italy last month. It was estimated to have cost about 48 million dollars. The 3-day celebration was attended by the world’s richest people and celebrities. The famous tourist site was turned into a privately-rented giant theme park.
In St. Mark’s Square, a banner criticizing Bezos read, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.” A photo of the banner appeared on the international page of the daily Akahata on July 9, accompanied by an article in which seven Nobel Prize-winning economists jointly called for “more tax on the ultra-rich.”
The laureates criticized ultra-wealthy individuals for using shady techniques to get around the income tax, the “cornerstone of tax justice”, pointing out that their tax rates are often lower than those of average taxpayers. The Nobel laureates suggest that a global minimum tax on billionaires equivalent to 2% of their net wealth can increase tax revenues by approximately 250 billion dollars.
In Japan as well, since the implementation of Abenomics, the number of high-net-worth individuals has skyrocketed. According to Cap Gemini’s World Wealth Report 2025, the population of HNWIs with more than one million dollars in assets reached 3.99 million last year, second only to the United States.
Having HNWIs along with large corporations enjoying record profits pay their fair share of taxes would also help finance consumption tax reductions.
The extreme concentration of wealth widens social inequalities, distorts politics, impedes economic growth, and degrades the environment. The fight against inequality is a matter of human progress.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, had a wedding ceremony in Venice, Italy last month. It was estimated to have cost about 48 million dollars. The 3-day celebration was attended by the world’s richest people and celebrities. The famous tourist site was turned into a privately-rented giant theme park.
In St. Mark’s Square, a banner criticizing Bezos read, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.” A photo of the banner appeared on the international page of the daily Akahata on July 9, accompanied by an article in which seven Nobel Prize-winning economists jointly called for “more tax on the ultra-rich.”
The laureates criticized ultra-wealthy individuals for using shady techniques to get around the income tax, the “cornerstone of tax justice”, pointing out that their tax rates are often lower than those of average taxpayers. The Nobel laureates suggest that a global minimum tax on billionaires equivalent to 2% of their net wealth can increase tax revenues by approximately 250 billion dollars.
In Japan as well, since the implementation of Abenomics, the number of high-net-worth individuals has skyrocketed. According to Cap Gemini’s World Wealth Report 2025, the population of HNWIs with more than one million dollars in assets reached 3.99 million last year, second only to the United States.
Having HNWIs along with large corporations enjoying record profits pay their fair share of taxes would also help finance consumption tax reductions.
The extreme concentration of wealth widens social inequalities, distorts politics, impedes economic growth, and degrades the environment. The fight against inequality is a matter of human progress.
