This paper explores the amount of intergenerational transfers in Japan, including bequests and gifts, and provide some implications for inheritance and gift taxes. Piketty’s (2011) methodology is employed to estimate annual intergenerational transfers. We found that annually, about 80 trillion yen are transferred, of which 48 trillion are inheritance transfers and 32 trillion are gift. In addition, we investigate the inheritance and gift tax systems in Japan. In doing so, we estimate the elasticity of taxable bequest transfers with respect to the net-of-inheritance tax rate, which falls in the range of 0.077-0.114. Fairly low elasticity implies that the current top inheritance rate of 55% is justifiable. Nevertheless, that tax rate is based on macro (aggregate) time-series data. Hence, studying it requires solid analysis using microdata from the National Tax Agency Japan. Doing so forms the basis for future research.
