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

目前的研究有两个目的。第一个目的是对关于税收的几个基本问题给出一个令人满意的解释：(1)税收是否合理以及如何合理；(2)通过税收进行财富再分配应该是什么样的。政府无权从人们的劳动所得中拿走任何一部分的观点仍然很流行。另一方面，在那些认为税收是合理的人当中，一些人呼吁通过税收促进公共利益，另一些人则声称公民有义务通过纳税等方式为社会做出贡献。这个关于税收合理性的问题还没有解决。考虑到我们现有的税收制度，人们普遍认为，这种税收制度的功能之一是在社会中重新分配财富。但关于再分配的正确方式或再分配与税收其他功能的关系，却很少有人说。本研究的两个目的中的第二个目的是概述研究人员认为日本更可取的税收。为了实现这两个目标，研究人员利用了自20世纪70年代以来在英语世界发生的社会正义讨论的丰富成果。研究者非常赞同墨菲和内格尔（《所有权的神话：税收和正义》，牛津，2002年）的观点。反对政府征税不合理的观点，他们令人信服地指出，这种观点是建立在财产权神话的基础上的；相反，他们声称，指导税收政策的价值观应该是社会公平，而不是税收公平。研究人员大致遵循墨菲和内格尔的路线，同时考虑到日本的特殊情况，勾勒出了一种更理想的税收政策形式。参见他的《卓越、正义和税收》（2004）。目前，这位研究人员正在更大规模地发展他的税收理论

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