Yess I was really serious ... I 'm still looking for the article ...
There is a very big difference between a university professor / economist (
Takuro Morinaga) who likes to appear on variety shows on TV, dreaming up this idea of a "taxe sur les beaux" (or tax on the good-looking) to make himself sound interesting on TV, and actual policy makers suggesting the introduction of such a tax.
This will never happen in Japan, although it would be interesting to see them try to come up with the criteria
PS: The absolute average income in Tokyo (as in Tokyo prefecture/metropolis) is around 6m JPY, which is roughly 75k USD at the current exchange rates.