As many of you might already know, the consumption tax in Japan rose from 5% to 8% on April 1st this year and it is planned to rise again to 10% in October 2015. I have noticed that major beauty websites in Japan, such as @Cosme and Biteki, are now listing product prices exclusive of consumption tax. This is what I have recently started doing as well (to follow what seems to be the new protocol).
On a related note, it is currently the case that beauty products purchased by foreign visitors to Japan are not eligible for tax refund (as they are classified as consumables), but the Japanese government is planning to expand the duty-free coverage to include food, medicine and cosmetics from October this year. (Read more on this in this article from Nikkei Asian Review.) This is certainly good news!
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Will this affect the prices of cosmetics? Kinda confused on this…..
Hi Susie,
It does. For example, a product costing ¥3150 (¥3000 x 1.05) before April 1st costs ¥3240 now, and it will cost ¥3300 from October 2015.
Thank you very much for your question! :)