Story from Yahoo News. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Japan’s government announced it would cut the country’s hefty corporate tax rate by 5 percentage points, in a bid to stimulate the economy and help Japanese businesses stay competitive.

The step announced late Monday is aimed at promoting investment, employment and salary increases at home so that Japan can exit deflation, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.

“I decided to take a bold step,” he told reporters.

Kan acknowledged more Japanese companies were moving abroad where corporate taxes are lower, causing job losses in Japan, Kyodo News agency reported. “That is not a plus for the Japanese economy,” he said, according to Kyodo.

The Japanese corporate tax rate was the highest in the world, at 40%. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US corporate tax rate is just under 40%, so now we will be the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Our neighbor to the north should reap the rewards as they have been lowering their corporate tax rate for years, and it’s going even lower in the future.