Japan Cabinet OKs 2-yr consumption tax cut on food to 1% from next April

Japan's Cabinet approved Wednesday a plan to lower the consumption tax rate on food and beverages to 1 percent from the current 8 percent for two years starting next April, in what will be the first reduction since the system's introduction in 1989.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government aims to enact related legislation for the inflation-relief scheme, which will involve cash handouts to low- and middle-income earners to realize "effectively zero" tax burdens, during an extraordinary parliamentary session likely to begin in the fall.