The study aims to clarify the influence of redistribution effect through income tax on income inequality across regions. Specifically, the income inequality and redistribution changes in urban and rural areas between 1984 and 2009 have been examined. The following results were obtained. First, inequalities in pretax and posttax incomes are larger in urban than in rural areas. These disparities, however, are disappearing because of an expansion in inequality in rural areas. Second, the redistributive effect of income tax is larger in urban than in rural areas. Between-sector factors had little impact. Third, between 1984 and 2009, the redistributive effect of income tax had been decreasing. Similarly, the redistributive effect was declining in rural areas over the same period, but the tendency seems to be ambiguous.
