Photo/Illutration Finance Ministry building where the National Tax Agency is accommodated in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward in 2018. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Japanese overseas assets have reached some 10 trillion yen ($95.20 billion), a sign wealthy Japanese people have a tremendous amount of holdings abroad, according to the National Tax Agency.

The agency announced on Feb. 2 that it had crunched the numbers in a review spanning some 2.06 million accounts owned by Japanese individuals and corporations at financial institutions across 86 countries and regions abroad.

Many tax authorities around the world, including those in Japan, share information on accounts owned by foreigners and foreign corporations, with some exceptions, at domestic financial institutions. They share account information through an international system called the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), designed to increase financial transparency and help combat tax evasion.

Using the system, authorities can strengthen their tax inspection powers as they examine overseas assets owned by their own nationals, officials said.

The national tax agency obtained information on more than 2 million accounts abroad for the 2019 accounting period, between July 2019 and June 2020, through using this system.

For the 2020 accounting period, up to Jan. 15, the agency obtained information on 2.19 million accounts for only half the year, so the balance could still increase from there.

Breaking down about 2.06 million accounts by area for the 2019 accounting year, financial institutions in Asia and Oceania have the largest number of accounts, at 1.63 million, followed by Europe and the former Soviet republics with 299,000 accounts, and then the Americas, with 96,000 accounts.

The United States, however, is part of another information exchange system, so it is not included in the CRS information.

On the other hand, the agency said it provided information on 474,000 accounts in Japan to 65 countries and regions.

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