Originally Posted by
freakazoid
Why would that matter? If the advertised price includes the tax, then you get a discount. That's also what is written in the article "At present, visitors who stay in Japan for less than six months can purchase merchandise with the consumption tax already deducted. The government is now considering shifting to a scheme where they pay tax-inclusive prices and apply for refunds afterward, the sources said."
That will be bad, really don’t want it to end up like EU where they farmed it out to Global Blue (among others) to do the refund and they charged you close to half the amount as ‘service charge’.