Consumption Tax Hike in Japan Leads to Last Minute Shopping

In an attempt to curb Japan’s overwhelming debt level, consumption tax in the country will be raised from 5 percent to 8 percent in April 2014, with most companies passing the burden of the tax onto consumers and some companies raising prices of their products. For example, the price of Coca-Cola from a vending machine will be raised by 10 yen and other companies are charging the same amount for a product but are shrinking packaging size. As a result, many consumers in Japan did last-minute s...