Nintozei
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The nintôzei, or "head tax," was a tax levied by the Ryukyu Kingdom on the people of the Yaeyama Islands. It is generally said to have been an unduly heavy tax burden, and is perhaps the most oft-cited example of how the kingdom's control of Yaeyama was oppressive.
Residents of the small island of Taketomi, who lacked sufficient arable land on the island to consistently grow enough rice to pay the tax, came to instead maintain rice fields on Ishigaki and Iriomote Islands, using dugout canoes or small sailboats to travel between the islands to maintain their fields and to bring back the harvest to Taketomi.[1]
Even after the abolition of the kingdom in 1879, the Empire of Japan maintained the nintôzei, finally abolishing it in 1902.
