The rates today
| Rate | What it covers | Tax inside the price |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | Most goods: clothes, electronics, cosmetics, medicines, alcohol. Also eating in at a restaurant. | 10/110 of the price, about 9.1% |
| 8% | Food and non-alcoholic drinks to take away, and newspapers by subscription. | 8/108 of the price, about 7.4% |
Which rate applies
- Snacks, sweets, bottled water and non-alcoholic beer count as food: 8%.
- Alcohol is 10%, including mirin that is classed as liquor.
- Medicines and quasi-drugs are not food: 10%, even energy drinks sold as quasi-drugs. Health foods and supplements that are not medicines count as food: 8%.
- Eating in, at a restaurant or a convenience-store eat-in corner, is 10%. The same food taken away is 8%.
- Prices must be shown including tax. Since 1 April 2021 shops may not show only the price before tax.
What this means for your refund
When you shop tax-free, the refund is the consumption tax inside the price. On ¥11,000 of goods at 10% that is ¥1,000; on ¥10,800 of food at 8% it is ¥800, before any handling fee.
Goods at both rates count together toward the ¥5,000 minimum before tax.
The planned cut on food to 1%
On 9 October 2026 the Cabinet approved a bill to lower the consumption tax on food and non-alcoholic drinks from 8% to 1% from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2029. It was submitted to the Diet the same day and, as of 18 October 2026, had not been passed. The National Tax Agency says its explanations apply only if the bill is passed.
The cut covers the same food that is taxed at 8% today. Alcohol, eating in, medicines and all other goods would stay at 10%, and newspapers by subscription at 8%.
Food worth ¥10,000 before tax
| Today (8%) | From 1 April 2027 (1%, if passed) | |
|---|---|---|
| You pay | ¥10,800 | ¥10,100 |
| Tax inside the price, the most you could get back | ¥800 | ¥100 |
What it would mean for tax-free shopping
No official source has said how the cut affects tax-free sales. Our reading: because the refund gives back the consumption tax, food bought from April 2027 would have only about 1% to refund, and a handling fee could take most of it. Goods at 10%, such as cosmetics, medicines and electronics, are not affected.
Price tags around the change
Where shops have real difficulty changing their tags, the National Tax Agency lets them keep showing the old tax-included price for a short time around the change, for example from 1 April to 31 May 2027, as long as customers are not misled. The amount charged at the till is what counts.