15 November 2010

Wordcatcher Tales: Yakinokori-zei, Yoyū-jūtaku-zei

From The Magatama Doodle: One Man's Affair with Japan, 1950–2004, by Hans Brinckmann (Global Oriental, 2005), pp. 99-100:
She had contracted tuberculosis towards the end of the war, and had spent her teenage years in hospital and at home to fight the disease and recuperate. American-made streptomycin, not available in Japan at the time, saved her. Bought at great expense on the black-market, it consumed a good part of what remained of the family's fortune after MacArthur's confiscatory property taxes, including the infamous yakinokori-zei, 'having-survived-the-bombings tax' [焼き残り税 'burn-remainder tax'], levied on houses that were left standing, followed by the yoyū-jūtaku-zei, the 'excess living space tax' [余裕住宅税 'surplus residence tax']. As she had been unfit to attend class, she had been tutored at home to prepare her for higher education.

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