Struggling under a heavy burden of debts, Tokyo's Minato Ward is considering the nation's first proposal to levy a local tax on tobacco vending machines, sources said Tuesday.
Currently, local tax revenues from cigarette machine sales go to the municipal government where the firm that owns the machine is located. No revenues go to the local government if the machine is owned by a company located in another municipality.
And this has struck Minato Ward as unfair. The number of cigarette machines is up in the ward's major shopping and commercial districts, like Akasaka and Roppongi, but tobacco tax revenues in the ward have grown little because many of these machines are operated by businesses based outside the ward, the sources said.