RSU and Stock Option Tax in Japan for Employees

Last updated: 19 October 2026 · the National Tax Agency’s pages · figures for the 2026 tax year

In Japan, shares your employer gives you are taxed as salary income (給与所得) when they become yours: RSUs on their value the day they vest, and ordinary stock options on the difference between the share price the day you exercise and the price you pay. Any rise after that is taxed as a capital gain when you sell. When the shares come from a parent company abroad, nothing is withheld in Japan, so you file a final tax return (確定申告) for the year. On a salary of ¥8,000,000, ¥2,000,000 of RSUs vesting adds ¥408,400 of income tax and ¥195,000 of resident tax.

This is a general explanation for an employee who is a resident of Japan for tax. Plans differ, and the tax office is the authority on yours; for a large grant, a 税理士 (licensed tax accountant) is worth the fee.

RSUs: taxed when they vest

A restricted stock unit (RSU) is a promise of shares once you have stayed long enough. Nothing is taxed when the units are granted. When they vest and the shares are delivered, their market value that day is income for that year, and because they are a reward for your work it is salary income, taxed with your pay at your income tax rate and then by resident tax the following year. Japanese courts have treated RSUs from an overseas parent this way, including when they vest because you leave: it is not retirement income.

A value in dollars or another currency is converted to yen at the exchange rate for that day. Keep the plan statements that show the date, the number of shares and the price: you need them for the return, and again when you sell, because the value at vesting is what the shares cost you.

Stock options: two kinds

• Ordinary (non-qualified) options (税制非適格ストック・オプション). Nothing is taxed when they are granted. When you exercise, (the share price that day − the exercise price) × the number of shares is income, and salary income if you got the options through your job. When you later sell, (the sale price − the share price on the day you exercised) × the number of shares is a capital gain.
• Qualified options (税制適格ストック・オプション). Under Japan’s stock option scheme nothing is taxed when you exercise. When you sell, the whole rise from the exercise price is a capital gain. The scheme has its own conditions on the company, the plan and the holder, and it is built on Japanese company law, so options from a parent company abroad are normally ordinary ones. Ask the company which kind yours are.

Who withholds, and the tax return

When a Japanese employer pays you, it withholds income tax and settles the year in December. Shares from a parent abroad are paid by a company that has no duty to withhold in Japan, so they are in neither your payslips nor your year-end adjustment, and the National Tax Agency lists salary from such a payer as a reason to file a final tax return. The return is filed from 16 February to 15 March of the following year. The ¥200,000 rule for side income does not help here: it is for somebody whose salary was all withheld.

Your Japanese employer has to report shares an overseas parent gives its staff to the tax office by the end of March of the next year, so a year with vesting and no return is likely to be noticed.

When you sell

Selling the shares is taxed separately from salary, as a capital gain on shares (株式等の譲渡所得), at 20.315%: 15.315% income tax and 5% resident tax. The cost is the value at vesting or at exercise (or the exercise price, for qualified options). Shares held at a broker abroad are not in a Japanese withholding account, so the gain goes on the return too.

Selling at once at vesting, for the same price, leaves almost no gain only if you hold no other shares of the same company. When you have bought or received the same stock more than once, Japan does not let each lot keep its own cost: the cost of the shares you sell is an average over the lots (総平均法に準ずる方法). So with older, cheaper shares still held, selling the newly vested ones produces a gain even at the day’s price.

What it costs on top of a salary

The vesting value is added to your salary for the year, so it is taxed at your top rates. For somebody in Tokyo on ¥8,000,000 a year, under 40 and single, ¥2,000,000 of RSUs vesting in the same year adds ¥408,400 of income tax for the year and ¥195,000 to the resident tax that follows: ¥603,400, about 30% of the shares’ value. The take-home calculator shows the salary side; the income tax brackets show which rate the extra lands in.

Questions people ask

Are RSUs taxed twice in Japan?

Two different amounts are taxed, once each. The value when the shares vest is salary income; the rise after that, when you sell, is a capital gain. The gain is worked out from the value at vesting, so the same yen is not taxed twice.

My employer did the year-end adjustment. Do I still need to file?

Yes, if the shares came from a parent company abroad. Nothing was withheld on them in Japan, so they are not in your year-end adjustment, and salary from a payer that does not withhold has to go on a final tax return.

Does the ¥200,000 rule let me skip the return?

No. That rule is for other income of somebody whose salary was all withheld. Shares received as salary from a parent abroad are salary that nobody withheld on, so they have to be filed whatever the amount.

Sources

• National Tax Agency — No.1543 税制非適格ストック・オプションの課税関係について (taxed at exercise and at sale; salary income when given through employment; the two formulas). Japanese, opened 19 October 2026.
• National Tax Agency — No.1540 ストック・オプション税制の適用を受けて取得した株式を譲渡した場合 (qualified options: no tax at exercise; the cost is the exercise price). Japanese, opened 19 October 2026.
• National Tax Agency — No.1900 給与所得者で確定申告が必要な人 (salary from a payer without a duty to withhold must be filed; the ¥200,000 rule is for those whose salary was all withheld). Japanese, opened 19 October 2026.
• National Tax Agency — No.1463 株式等を譲渡したときの課税 (20.315% on gains from shares). Japanese.
• National Tax Agency — No.1464 譲渡した株式等の取得費 (shares of the same stock acquired more than once: the cost is averaged). Japanese, opened 19 October 2026.
• National Tax Agency — 外国親会社等が国内の役員等に供与等をした株式等に関する調書 (the Japanese employer reports shares an overseas parent gives its staff, by the end of March of the next year). Japanese, opened 19 October 2026.
• Courts in Japan — RSUs from an overseas parent company (the shares were salary income, not retirement income, though they vested on leaving). Japanese.

See the salary side in the calculator