Making Dispute Resolution Mechanisms More Effective – Consolidated Information on Mutual Agreement Procedures 2023

Japan

Recent developments relating to MAP in Japan prior to 15 August 2023

Developments relating to MAP in the tax treaty network

• Since the period of the latest peer review:

  • tax treaties with Colombia, Spain and Uzbekistan entered into force; and

  • tax treaties with Algeria, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jamaica, Morocco, Peru, Serbia and Uruguay were signed (treaty with Algeria is not in force).

Other developments relating to MAP

• No developments were reported

Latest Action 14 Peer Review report

15 April 2021 - https://doi.org/10.1787/e3d454fd-en

Tax treaty network of Japan

• 79 treaties, applicable to 86 jurisdictions (77 treaties of which are in force)

• status of MLI: in force.

Table 1. State of play of Japan's tax treaty network

Treaties in line with the Action 14 Minimum Standard following MLI impact	Treaties where actions are ongoing to make them in line with the Action 14 Minimum Standard	Following impact/actions, remaining treaties that are not in line with Action 14 Minimum Standard
69	0	10

Source: OECD

Japan's MAP programme

Organisation of competent authority function

• 46 persons:

  • four heads of unit

  • 46 persons working on MAP cases (among which three persons work on other tasks as well):

    • all 46 persons can work on any types of MAP cases including attribution/allocation cases and other cases.

• contact persons for MAP requests:

  • Office of Mutual Agreement Procedures (“MAP Office”), National Tax Agency (“NTA”)

    Office Address: 3-1-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8978 JAPAN

    Tel: [phone].

Figure 1. Competent Authority Organisational Structure

Source: OECD

Table 2. Guidance on the MAP process

MAP guidance	Commissioner’s Directive on the Mutual Agreement Procedure, 14 February 2022	https://www.nta.go.jp/english/00.pdf (Section 6 to be referred to for form and content of a MAP request, including information requirements)
	Ministerial Ordinance of ATT	https://elaws.e-gov.go.jp/document?lawid=344AC0000000046#345
MAP profile	1 August 2019	https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/japan-dispute-resolution-profile.pdf

Overview of Japan's MAP Statistics for 2022

Please refer to https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/map-statistics-japan.pdf for details with respect to Japan's MAP Statistics.

Figure 2. Cases closed in 2022

Source: OECD

Figure 3. Evolution of Japan's MAP caseload (2016-22)

Source: OECD

Table 3. Overview of Japan’s MAP caseload for 2022

Inventory for year 2022	Opening Inventory 1/1/2022	Cases started	Cases Closed	End Inventory 31/12/2022
Attribution/allocation cases	88	36	39	85
Other cases	16	5	8	13
Total	104	41	47	98

Source: OECD

Table 4. Japan’s average time to resolve MAP cases in 2022

Cases resolved in year 2022	Pre-2016 cases		Post-2015 cases		All
	Number of cases	Average time	Number of cases	Average time	Number of cases	Average time
				Start to End
Attribution / Allocation cases	2	88.60	37	27.50	39	30.63
Other cases	0	N/A	8	18.44	8	18.44
All cases	2	88.60	45	25.89	47	28.56

Source: OECD