This article introduces the debate surrounding Prescott's (2004) theory in which he attributes the differences in working hours among the major industrialized nations to respective disparities in the tax systems and public retirement programs. The validity of this argument for Japan is examined....

This study provides new estimates of the income distribution of high income earners and uses recent empirical findings related to the elasticity of taxable income in Japan to derive the optimal highest marginal tax rate. Based on the 2003 Top Taxpayer Rankings, the Pareto distribution...