A drastic change in the nation's tax system to encourage greater workforce participation by women could have been an effective prescription to addressing a labor shortage in the rapidly aging country.
But any revision to the spousal tax deduction system is likely to be minor in this year's tax reform plan — due mainly to opposition from within the ruling parties — despite eagerness expressed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
"We will encourage women to work without making adjustment," Abe told a Sept. 9 meeting of the government's tax commission. "We would like to create a (tax) system that is neutral to various ways of working."