Facing weak home demand, Japanese refiners look to push up exports

Greed is the common factor when pricing any oil product.

They just don't get it, do they? Globalization is a two-way street. The have to let companies into Japan as well as building their exports and, they have to make it easy for companies to come into Japan. However, once the sales tax increase hits Japanese products will be way too expensive for export. Furthermore, the tax increase is gonna make people poorer, so the Japanese markets are gonna fail. Have you ever watched the water funnel out of a bathtub? That is a great analogy for the Japanese economy.

However, once the sales tax increase hits Japanese products will be way too expensive for export.

I don't think so. A far bigger factor is the value of the yen, which I suspect is likely to continue to decline over the medium term due to the brand new trade and current account deficits. The consumption tax might hit consumption temporarily, but exports to overseas buyers?

Furthermore, the tax increase is gonna make people poorer, so the Japanese markets are gonna fail.

The Japanese markets might fail anyway if the government cancelled the tax increase and continued to do nothing about it's growing debt Mt. Everest, potentially triggering a market disruption.

The overall tax burden in Japan is not that high, anyways, the consumption tax hike isn't going to change that so drastically.