A Socio-ethical Study in Taxes-The Justification and the Principle of Redistribution-

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The present study had two aims. The first aim was to give a satisfactory account of a couple of fundamental issues regarding taxes: (1)whether and how taxation is justified ; and (2)what the redistribution of wealth through taxes should be like.(1)The view that the government has no right to take away from people any part of what they have earned is still popular. Among those for whom taxation is justified, on the other hand, some appeal to public interests promoted by taxes, and others claim that citizens have a duty to contribute to the society by among other things, paying taxes. This question about the justification of taxes has not been settled yet. (2)Given the kind of tax system we have, it is widely recognized that one of the functions of such a tax system is to redistribute wealth in society. But little has been said as to the right way of redistribution or the relation of redistribution to other functions of taxes.The second of the two aims of the present study was to sketch what seems to the researcher to be a more desirable from of taxes in Japan. In achieving both these goals the researcher has utilized rich results of that discussion of social justice that has taken place in the English-speaking world since 1970's.The researcher is in great agreement with Murphy & Nagel (The Myth of Ownership : Taxes and Justice, Oxford, 2002). Against the view that the government is not justified in taxation, they convincingly argues that this view is based on a myth of property rights ; they instead claim that societal fairness, rather than tax fairness, should be the value that guides tax policy. The researcher has sketched a more desirable form of tax policies in Japan by generally following Murphy & Nagel's line and at the same time taking special circumstances of this country into consideration. See his 'Excellence, Justice and Taxation' (2004).Currently the researcher is developing his theory of taxes in a larger scale