Kokusai Sozeiho (Introduction to International Taxation: 4th edition)

This book was designed to serve as a brief introduction to international taxation for students, practitioners, and policy makers who are fluent in Japanese. In the winter semester of 2006, the authors co-taught a class on international tax law at UTokyo Law School. The teaching materials that we assembled for this course formed the basis of the first edition published in 2008. We revised the book in 2011 and in 2015, reflecting tax reforms, new court cases, and emerging literature. In January 2018, my co-author, Ms. Yuko Miyazaki, became a Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.
 
This book has two distinct pedagogical purposes. First, it enables its readers to understand the interaction between domestic tax law and tax treaties, which are the two building blocks of legal norms that affect international transactions today. Second, it attempts to allow its readers to interconnect different pieces of legal information in order to solve complex issues in concrete cases. To serve these purposes, this book makes extensive use of examples, quizzes, exercises, and reading guides.
 
The highlights of this book are the two chapters that present hypothetical discussions between a graduate student and a university teacher in a classroom. These two loveable characters openly exchange their views on a few selected cases involving international tax issues that frequently appear in practice. These chapters are designed to make its readers “think like lawyers.”
 
Although most of the materials covered in this book are related to Japanese law, this book is a product of comparative legal studies and reflects the dynamics that shape global standards at the G20 and OECD levels. Both authors have lectured and published extensively in several international forums, including the International Fiscal Association. In 2017, the third edition of this book was translated into Korean by a team led by Professor Jaeho Lee, from the University of Seoul.
 

(Written by MASUI Yoshihiro, Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2018)