Japan to track down foreign accounts
Japan will gather information on residents' overseas financial holdings in an effort to keep tabs on wealthy people who exploit tax loopholes on an international scale.
The National Tax Agency will work with counterparts around the world, including, significantly, authorities in tax havens.
Some 16.3 billion yen ($138 million) in inherited overseas assets went unreported in Japan in the 2013 tax year, a more than sixfold increase from the previous year. The agency sees this as a serious problem. Starting in 2014, people with more than 50 million yen in overseas assets are required to report them for tax purposes.