Breaking: Gari-Gari-kun Ice Pops Now Covered by Health Insurance, But 'Winner Sticks' Require Tax Filing

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced on the 24th an unprecedented decision to include the national ice pop “Gari-Gari-kun (limited to soda flavor)” in the medical insurance coverage and add it to the prescription drug list in response to the surge in heat stroke patients due to record-breaking heat. This means that when a doctor determines “oral cooling therapy for acute body temperature elevation” is necessary, patients can visit a pharmacy with a prescription and receive Gari-Gari-kun at 30% of the cost.

This groundbreaking (or reckless) policy is positioned as part of adaptation measures for intensifying climate change. A ministry official boasted, “This is no longer an era where we can survive summer with willpower and guts alone. Based on scientific evidence, we’ve incorporated the fastest and most familiar cooling method into our medical infrastructure. This is a paradigm shift in heat stroke prevention.” The drug price is set at 76 yen per pop, with patients expected to pay about 23 yen out of pocket.

However, while this decision brings a breath of fresh air to the medical field, it’s also generating new heat sources. The issue is the existence of “winner sticks,” synonymous with Gari-Gari-kun. The Ministry of Finance and National Tax Agency announced on the same day that “when a winner stick appears, it represents an incidental profit with economic value (‘one more’ worth 76 yen) and qualifies as temporary income under the Income Tax Act.”

As a result, citizens lucky enough to draw a winner stick after consuming insurance-covered Gari-Gari-kun must, despite their momentary joy, combine this income with other income and file a tax return. The National Tax Agency website promptly posted a “Guide to e-Tax Input When You Get a Winner Stick,” but complaints that “winning is more like a punishment game” have erupted on social media due to the procedural complexity.

Professor Bondo Shikida of the Department of Health Economics at Toto University views this coldly: “From a medical cost reduction perspective, if cheap ice pops can replace expensive IV drips, it could be rational. However, the administrative cost of forcing citizens to file tax returns for 76 yen of income might exceed the saved medical costs.” He points out, “The on-site confusion is immeasurable, including pharmacy freezer inventory management and pharmacy accounting procedures when winner sticks appear.”

In some regions, movements like “declaration boycotts” where people don’t exchange winner sticks because going to the tax office is troublesome, and underground economies where “winner sticks are anonymously listed on flea market apps” are reportedly forming. Akagi Dairy Co., Ltd., the manufacturer, told this paper with evident confusion, “We’re honored to contribute to the nation’s health, but the tax treatment of winner sticks caught us completely off guard. We’re currently consulting with our legal department.”

The winner stick, once a symbol of simple summer happiness, has now transformed into a litmus test questioning citizens’ compliance and tax consciousness. This summer, Japanese people will waver between joy and duty, ice pop in hand. The heated debate over cold Gari-Gari-kun seems unlikely to cool this nation’s sweltering heat anytime soon.

Stakeholder Comments

• Gari-Gari-kun: “I finally made my prescription debut! But taxes on winner sticks… that’s a story that doesn’t quite crunch right.”
• Ministry of Health Official: “If it saves lives, even ice pops can become medicine. This is Japan’s new medical DX.”
• National Tax Agency Official: “We don’t overlook even one yen of income. Winner sticks are fortune bestowed upon citizens and equally valuable national revenue.”
• Local Pharmacist: “My daily routine now includes saying with a straight face, ‘Here’s your medicine. Gari-Gari-kun soda flavor. One per day, serve well-chilled after meals.’”
• Heat-Suffering Citizen: “The 30% coverage is nice, but if I have to spend half a day filing taxes for 70 yen of income, I’d rather buy three myself.”
• Winner Stick: “I was supposed to end my life as just a wooden stick, but never imagined I’d be in the spotlight as a taxable asset… life is unpredictable.”
• Pharmacy Freezer: “Medical Gari-Gari-kun must be stored at minus 18 degrees or below. The responsibility is enormous. The temptation from the regular ice cream next door is intense.”
• Doctor: “I never learned in medical school that ‘I’ll prescribe some Gari-Gari-kun for suspected heat stroke’ would become reality.”
• Economic Analyst: “The ‘winner stick declaration rate’ will become a new economic indicator. A high declaration rate signals citizens’ economic and temporal flexibility.”
• Japanese Summer: “I’m aware I’m getting hotter each year, but I never imagined humans would come up with such an off-the-wall countermeasure.”

International Expressions

Haiku

• Prescription held / waiting in line for / soda flavor
• Summer sky above / winner stick in hand / to the tax office
• Crunching away / both coolness and the / tax amount due
• Winner appears / duty to pay tax / outweighs the joy
• Such coldness yet / one stick carries such / heavy taxation
• At the pharmacy / backs lined up waiting / for frozen treats
• Tax return form / attached to it sits / the winner stick
• Temporary income / explained to me under / cicada chorus
• Seeking coolness / in hand the blue-tinted / tax payment slip
• “One more” melts away / like a dream in the / summer afternoon

Kanji / Chinese Characters

厚生労働省 氷菓保険適用 決定 猛暑熱中症対策 当棒一時所得見做 納税義務発生

Emoji

🥵 → 👨‍⚕️ → 🧾 → 🏪 → 🧊😋 → 🎉 → 🪵 → 🏛️ → 💸

Onomatopoeia

Jiri-jiri… Kura-kura… Kari-kari, shari-shari, keen! Yatta!… Eh? Gessori… Kachi-kachi (PC typing sounds), tobo-tobo…

SNS

• #GariGariKunInsuranceCoverage
• #WinnerSticksAreTemporaryIncome
• Summer 2025: Can’t even be happy about winning
• #FilingTaxesNow_with_WinnerStick
• Getting Gari-Gari-kun at the pharmacy is too surreal lol
• Tax evasion: absolutely not. (quietly discards stick)
• #JapansSummerTaxSummer
• Fighting with e-Tax for 76 yen
• What medical cost reduction…?
• #LinkingMyNumberCardWithWinnerSticks