Paying your taxes in 1-yen coins

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    Don’t like Japan’s policy of fingerprinting non-citizens upon arrival at airports? Debito has posted an entry today directing people to a “cheeky” site on which one foreigner boasts about paying his local taxes in 1-yen coins as a protest:

    I went to City Hall, and to the Tax Section. Three obaasans were behind the counter, and none made an effort to get up and help me. So, I announced that I was “Paying the Sabetsu (discrimination) tax” and that got their attention. First I made a big production out of handing over the protest note as if it were a certificate handed over by the Emperor himself, requesting that it go to the Tax Section Chief. Then I repeated the bow and double-handed presentation with the request that the note go to the Mayor. Then, with a flourish, I poured all my coins into the tray provided. (Luckily, none spilled out.) Three mouths fell over at once, one managing a sub-voce “kyaaah!”
    Two more people jumped from their desks and stared at all the coins. They rushed to help the counting process, as if the coins were a hazardous chemical just spilled which needed a rapid response and removal.

    Whispers rumbled throughout the open office space, “That guy just paid in COINS!”

    They printed me up a receipt, and I asked one of the “obaasans” for her fingerprints on the back, to which I received a “Yada! (No way!)” I thanked her nonetheless, and walked the long walk back to the elevator. Just before I turned the corner I glanced back, and about ten or twelve people had come to the counter to find out what was up. They were intently reading the protest sheets against fingerprinting.

    So there you have it – a foreigner acting like a complete douchebag towards low-level employees of his local government because he doesn’t like how the national government treats foreigners. It probably gave those old ladies a hard time, but it will most certainly have no influence whatsoever on changing the fingerprinting policy.

    A comment at Debito.org by Chris pretty much hit the nail on the head:

    What a horrible idea – what does the mayor and/or local tax authority have to do with the fingerprinting? Does that person also spit on gas station attendants to protest rising fuel prices? Or stages demonstrations in front of his local supermarket to protest the butter shortage?

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