Ten specialists in the fields of tax law and public finance from Japan, the Netherlands, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Vietnam recently gathered in Leiden, the Netherlands to present papers and give lectures on tax law in those countries for the symposium 'Tax Law in East and Southeast Asia Towards the 21st Century.' The meeting fostered the exchange of information on recent reforms of tax systems, with participants examining both differences and similarities and discussing further planned or necessary reforms for each country in East and Southeast Asia on the threshold of the 21st century. The papers collected in this volume were originally prepared for the conference. After the conference, contributors revised their papers on the basis of the discussions conducted. Giving due consideration to the comparison of tax systems in these areas, these revised papers emphasise themes such as tax structure, especially that of direct and indirect taxes; intergovernmental fiscal relationships; and recent reforms to and problems of tax systems. The result: an extremely useful and informative work which covers ground rarely covered before. Legal and other tax practitioners as well as academics will find this volume of great value.