http://kotaku.com/report-japan-to-tax-foreign-downloads-starting-next-ye-1501769033 [quote]Physical goods imported into Japan are taxed. And according to the Japanese media, starting in 2015, foreign downloads will be as well. Content such as digital music, e-books, apps, and games downloaded from foreign servers will levied with a consumption tax, reports Nikkei. Going on info from government sources, Asahi, one of the largest papers in the country,explains that individuals in Japan who buy digital content from Amazon.com can get their content at a discount, because it's currently not taxed. Downloads, however, sold through domestic Japanese servers are taxed. Thus, this has given foreign-based retailers an advantage—something about which Japanese vendors have complained. And next year, that means taxes for digital foreign goods.[/quote] That doesn't really sound right to me, but this really sucks for any Japanese residents. So starting in 2015, and if you live in Japan, you should try your hardest to download from Japanese servers and not from any foreign servers, although that's going to be really hard to do, because a lot of servers, especially for popular websites, are hosted in the US. So yup, tax on digital goods in Japan. This is only the beginning. EDIT: Would it be possible to bypass this by using a VPN?