Japan Pay and Tax Guides in English

Salary bands and the payslip

What a salary takes home, and why some months differ from the rest.

• Negotiating a salary: gross and take-home — what comes off an offer, what to ask about bonuses, commuting, housing and overtime, and comparing two offers.
• Housing allowance or company housing — why cash for rent is taxed like pay, the rent value that keeps company housing tax free, and the social insurance side.
• RSUs and stock options: how they are taxed — salary income when the shares become yours, the gain when you sell, and why shares from a parent abroad mean a tax return.
• ¥3 million salary in Japan: take-home pay explained — a first salary line by line, with and without a bonus, and why the first year keeps more.
• ¥4 million salary in Japan: take-home pay explained — the payslip on ¥4,000,000, with and without a bonus, month by month from arrival.
• What a ¥5,000,000 salary takes home — one package line by line, with the same figures from ¥3 million to ¥10 million and for a dependent spouse, turning 40, and other prefectures.
• ¥6 million salary in Japan: what you actually take home — the payslip on ¥6,000,000 and the two tax lines just above it.
• ¥10 million salary in Japan: your take-home pay — the payslip on ¥10,000,000, and why the share you keep is smaller than it is on ¥5,000,000.
• How much of a Japanese bonus you take home — what the four deductions take out of a bonus, and why the tax rate on it is read from last month’s salary rather than from the bonus.
• Social insurance caps for high earners — the top pension and health insurance grades, the bonus caps, and what they do to the share of a high salary that goes in premiums.
• Bonus tax with no salary the month before — why a bonus after a month without pay can have nothing withheld, why one over ten times the salary can have more, column otsu, and the month you join or leave.
• Why your December take-home pay is different — what the year-end adjustment (年末調整) settles, why a bigger refund is not the better outcome, and when December takes money instead.
• Why your take-home drops in October — how April to June pay resets the insurance grade, when it moves mid-year instead, and when an April raise reaches the payslip.
• Why your take-home drops at 40 — the long-term care insurance premium that starts at 40, the birthday rule for its first month, and the difference on three salaries.
• Social insurance rates for 2026: what changed — health insurance by prefecture, the new child-care support levy, care insurance, pension and employment insurance, and what they do to take-home.

Resident tax

The local tax on last year’s income, and when it starts and moves.

• Why your first payslips in Japan have no resident tax — when the bill starts, why the June of your second year is the drop everybody notices, and what happens to it if you leave the country.
• How resident tax is calculated — the 10% income-based part and the flat per-capita part, the small adjustment credit, and one salary worked through next to income tax.
• Who pays no resident tax — the two lines by household size, how they look on a salary, smaller towns, pensions, and what being exempt brings.
• Changing jobs in Japan: what happens to your resident tax — why a new salary does not change the bill, what the month you leave decides, and why the new employer does not pick it up on its own.
• Furusato nozei for foreign residents — how a hometown tax donation comes back, the limit, the one-stop exception, when it shows, and why leaving Japan matters.
• Furusato nozei in December: a year-end checklist — paying before the year ends, the one-stop exception or a tax return, the forms that must arrive in January, and the receipts to keep.

Benefits and leave

Unemployment benefit, childcare leave pay and the premiums during leave, and a retirement allowance.

• Unemployment benefit in Japan for foreign residents — how the daily amount and the number of days are worked out, when the first payment arrives, and why applying late can cost days.
• After quitting a job: money and deadlines — the 14-day deadlines for health insurance and pension, a month of money on the benefit, the pension exemption for job loss, and the tax on the year.
• How much you get on childcare leave — 67% then 50%, why take-home falls by less than pay, and the months before the first payment.
• When social insurance premiums are waived on childcare leave — the month-end rule, the 14-day rule and the more-than-a-month rule for bonuses, with worked dates.
• Maternity and childcare leave: the tax side — why none of the benefits is taxed, your partner’s exemption for spouse, your own year, and the medical expense deduction for the birth.
• Sick leave pay: how the sickness allowance works — the waiting days, two-thirds of a daily rate from your insurance grade, what is left once premiums are paid, and the claim form.
• Employee health insurance or National Health Insurance — how each premium is set, who covers your family, sick pay, and the three choices when you leave a job.
• How retirement allowance (taishokukin) is taxed — the deduction for years of service, the half rule and its exceptions, and the form that stops 20.42% being withheld.

Arriving in Japan and leaving

The first payslips after you arrive, and what happens to your tax when you go.

• Why your first paycheck has no health insurance or resident tax — insurance a month behind, resident tax a year behind, and why the first payslip withholds more income tax.
• Salary paid in arrears: the first months — closing dates and paydays, why the first month can bring no pay, and the first three payslips on two pay cycles.
• Two jobs: social insurance and tax — when both employers insure you, column otsu at the second job, and the tax return it leads to.
• Why 20.42% is withheld from your salary as a non-resident — working holidays and other stays under a year, why the flat rate is not refunded, when you count as a resident instead, and resident tax.
• Resident, non-permanent resident or non-resident — how Japan decides your tax category, what each one is taxed on, the first five years, and why 183 days is not the test.
• Leaving Japan mid-year: final tax return and tax agent — the year-end adjustment before you go, the return some people must file before departure, and the tax agent that moves it to the usual season.
• Leaving Japan mid-year: what happens to resident tax — why the bill does not stop when you do, what is left of it in each month of the year, and who pays it once you have gone.
• Japan’s pension: what you pay and get back — employees’ and national pension premiums, the ten-year rule, the refund if you leave sooner, and social security agreements.
• National pension exemption: how to apply — the four exemptions and the deferrals for under-50s and students, the income limits, the job-loss exemption, and paying it back later.
• Checking your pension record on Nenkin Net — the two ways in, what the record and the estimate show, the yearly statement by post, and the gaps worth checking.
• Your last paycheck before leaving Japan — why it can carry two months of social insurance, how the day you leave decides that, and where the early year-end adjustment and resident tax fit in.
• Leaving Japan: the pension refund and your last taxes — who can claim the Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment, how the 20.42% withheld from it comes back through a tax agent, resident tax for the year you go, and one order for all of it.

Deductions, the year-end adjustment and tax returns

For the 2026 season in one place — the changes, the forms, the refund and the dates — see year-end adjustment in Japan 2026.

What lowers the tax, how the year is settled, and when a return is needed.

• Year-end tax adjustment (nenmatsu chosei): which forms you file — each declaration in English, the documents for relatives abroad, arriving or leaving mid-year, and when a tax return is still needed, with a five-question checker.
• Year-end adjustment missed or wrong — what your employer can still redo until the end of January, the tax return after that, and what usually goes wrong for people from abroad.
• When employees must file a tax return — a table of the cases where an employee must file, the cases where filing brings money back, the filing season and the smartphone route.
• The year-end tax refund: when and how much — which payslip it comes in, why part of it can wait for January, the refund on six salaries, and putting off a large bill.
• Part-time and student income limits in 2026 — where resident tax, income tax, the family deductions and health insurance each begin, the 20-hour rule, and the student work limit.
• The commuting allowance: tax-free limits — the ceiling for trains and buses, the table by distance for cars and bicycles, why premiums still rise, and two examples.
• A spouse on your health insurance — the income line, what counts as their income, the new rule that reads the contract, and what the household pays above it.
• Life insurance deduction: what the autumn certificate saves — where the insurer’s certificate goes, which policies count, the three categories and their limits, and what the deduction is worth on three salaries.
• Medical expense deduction: how to claim — the threshold, what counts, family members, treatment abroad, the self-medication option and what it gives back on two salaries.
• How to read your gensen-choshuhyo (withholding tax statement) — every box in English, what an empty box means, and three things on it that point to a tax return.
• Withholding tax statement or tax certificate? — what the gensen-choshuhyo, the resident tax certificate and the tax payment certificates each show, which a visa or a loan asks for, and how to get them.
• Tax documents to keep, and for how long — withholding statements, insurance and donation certificates, medical receipts and business books, why the usual answer is five years, and what to take when you leave.
• Japan’s income tax brackets, explained — the seven bands and the surtax, how a salary becomes taxable income, and why the share you pay is far below your top band.
• The monthly withholding table, explained — the two numbers payroll reads it with, columns kou and otsu, bonuses, and why December settles it.
• How to read a Japanese payslip — every line of a 給与明細 in English: the grade behind health insurance and pension, the monthly tax table, and why the deductions move in June and October.
• The exemption for dependents: children and parents — who counts, the amounts by age, a student who earns more, and what each is worth on a salary.
• How the 2026 basic deduction change affects your take-home — the new bands for 2026 and 2027, what they are worth on three salaries, and why most of it arrives in December.
• What a dependent spouse is worth — the exemption for spouse (配偶者控除) in money, the salary of theirs at which each part of it changes, and the income of yours that ends it.
• Filling in the spouse part of the year-end form — the two income estimates, the boxes and the table on the 配偶者控除等申告書, and what to do when the estimate turns out wrong.
• Claiming family abroad as dependents — the ¥380,000 rule that decides whether a relative outside Japan counts, what you file for them, and what one of them is worth a year.
• Does iDeCo change your monthly take-home? — how paying from your own account and paying through payroll differ, and the December 2026 limit increase.
• iDeCo in the year-end adjustment: how to claim — when the contribution certificate comes, the line on the insurance premium form, payroll contributions, and what to do if you miss it.
• The ¥200,000 side-income rule — when side income means filing a tax return, why resident tax has no such rule, and the cliff one yen above the line.
• How side income is taxed: freelance, stocks and crypto — business or miscellaneous income, withholding accounts and NISA, crypto for 2026, and which of them count towards the filing line.