FY2026 Local Finance Council Meeting Summary (September 30)
Overview
The Local Finance Council deliberated and approved the September FY2026 allocation of local allocation tax grants and a ministerial ordinance amendment concerning population and other data used in the calculations. The amendment corrects errors in forest environment tax remittances and updates the population figures to those from the 2025 Population Census. The council will review whether the special measures for areas affected by the nuclear disaster should continue when the census results are published.
Key points
- After receiving explanations on the agenda items and deliberating, the council approved both matters.
- The correction addresses errors in forest environment tax remittances and aligns the amounts with the allocations that should have been made.
- The population used in the allocation criteria will be updated to reflect the 2025 Population Census.
- The need to continue the special measures for affected areas will be reviewed when the census results are published.
Overview
The agenda covered the September FY2026 allocation of local allocation tax grants and an amendment to the ministerial ordinance on population and other data used to calculate local allocation tax grants. The first matter covered the Aircraft Fuel Allocation Tax, Special Tonnage Allocation Tax, and Forest Environment Allocation Tax; the second was deliberated under provisions governing calculations for the Local Gasoline Allocation Tax and Motor Vehicle Weight Allocation Tax.
Impact
If forest environment tax remittances are not handled properly, the amounts allocated to each prefecture and municipality may be affected.
Details
For FY2025 forest environment tax, errors in amounts remitted by prefectures to the national government were identified this fiscal year in 2 organizations. In this allocation, the errors will be corrected to align the amounts with those that should have been allocated. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has previously urged prefectures to handle remittances accurately and reliably, and will issue renewed reminders in light of this case.
The ministerial ordinance amendment is not a substantive change to the system. It is a technical amendment accompanying publication of the 2025 Population Census, replacing the 2020 Census population figures used in allocation criteria and other calculations with figures from the 2025 Census.
For the Local Gasoline Allocation Tax, Motor Vehicle Weight Allocation Tax, and Forest Environment Allocation Tax, the need to continue special measures for areas affected by the nuclear disaster will be reviewed every 5 years, when census results are published, taking regional conditions and other factors into account; the relevant ministerial ordinances will then be amended.