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

本研究有两个目的。第一个目标是对税收的两个基本问题给出满意的解释：（1）税收是否合理以及如何合理;（2）通过税收进行的财富再分配应该是什么样的。（1）政府无权从人民身上拿走任何一部分收入的观点仍然很流行。另一方面，在那些认为税收是正当的人中，有些人呼吁税收促进公共利益，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。这个关于征税的正当性的问题还没有解决。（2）在现行税制下，大家都知道税制的其中一个功能是重新分配社会财富。但是，关于再分配的正确方式以及再分配与税收其他功能的关系，却鲜有论述。本研究的第二个目的是，勾勒出研究者认为更理想的日本税收形式。为了实现这两个目标，研究者利用了自20世纪70年代以来在英语世界发生的关于社会正义的讨论的丰富成果。研究者非常同意Murphy &内格尔（所有权的神话：税收与正义，牛津，2002）。与政府征税不合理的观点相反，他们令人信服地认为，这种观点是基于财产权的神话;相反，他们声称，社会公平，而不是税收公平，应该是指导税收政策的价值观。研究者在大致遵循墨菲和内格尔的路线的同时，考虑到日本的特殊情况，勾勒出了一个更理想的日本税收政策形式。参见他的《卓越、正义与税收》（2004）。目前，研究者正在更大范围内发展他的税收理论

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