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Life Insurance Deduction in Japan: What It Saves

Last updated: 13 October 2026 · rules as of 1 April 2026 (令和8年4月1日現在法令等) · figures for the 2026 tax year

Some time in October or November a letter arrives from your life insurer with a certificate of life insurance premiums paid (生命保険料控除証明書, seimei hokenryō kōjo shōmeisho) in it. It is for the year-end adjustment (年末調整): it lets part of what you paid for the policy come off the income your tax is worked out on. The short answer is that on a policy taken out from 1 January 2012 the most it can take off is ¥40,000 in each of three categories, ¥120,000 in all, for income tax, and ¥28,000 each, ¥70,000 in all, for resident tax (住民税). On a ¥5,000,000 salary the whole of it is worth ¥13,100 a year. This page is about that one certificate; the other forms of the adjustment are in the guide to the year-end adjustment forms.

This is a general explanation for somebody paid a salary by one employer in Japan. Your employer, your insurer and the tax office are the authority on your own case, and nothing here is advice to buy or keep a policy.

What the certificate is for

The certificate shows what you paid in premiums in the year, split the way the deduction needs it: by category — general life insurance (一般生命保険料), medical and long-term care insurance (介護医療保険料) and individual pension insurance (個人年金保険料) — and by whether the contract is new, made on or after 1 January 2012, or old, made before. It comes in the autumn, in time for the year-end adjustment.

You copy those amounts onto the Application for Deduction for Insurance Premiums (給与所得者の保険料控除申告書) your employer hands out, and attach the certificate. One is needed for every policy except an old life insurance contract (not an old pension one) whose premiums for the year are ¥9,000 or less; an electronic certificate from the insurer does the same job if your employer takes the form online. Your employer works out the deduction, takes it off your income for the year, and the income tax withheld too much comes back to you on the December or January payslip. Your employer reports the deduction to your city office with the year’s salary, and the resident tax bill that starts the following June is worked out with it.

Miss the adjustment — the form handed in late, a certificate found in February — and you can still claim it in a final tax return (確定申告) for the year, with the certificate attached or shown when you file.

Which policies count

A policy with a life insurer, Japan Post’s old postal life insurance or a cooperative such as JA, paid for by you, where everyone the policy pays out to is you, your spouse or another relative. Individual pension insurance has stricter rules of its own: the pension is paid to you or your spouse, starts as a rule at 60 and runs for ten years or more, or for life, and the premiums are paid regularly for ten years or more before it starts. The certificate says which category a policy falls in.

Two exclusions matter to somebody who has moved to Japan. A policy taken out abroad with a foreign insurer does not count, even if you still pay for it from here. And a savings policy of under five years does not count either. A policy with a foreign insurer’s branch or subsidiary in Japan, made in Japan, is treated like any other.

How much comes off

Each category is worked out on its own from the premiums of the year, and the three are added up. For a new contract, for income tax:

Resident tax uses a table of its own rather than a share of that one:

So a policy at ¥5,000 a month — ¥60,000 a year in one category — takes ¥35,000 off for income tax and ¥28,000 for resident tax. Paying more than ¥80,000 a year into one category adds nothing for either.

An old contract, made up to 31 December 2011, has two categories rather than three — general and pension — and a table that stops at ¥50,000 each for income tax and ¥35,000 for resident tax. Somebody with old and new policies in the same category can add the two results together — up to ¥40,000 for income tax and ¥28,000 for resident tax — or use the old one alone if that gives more. Whatever the mix, the total stays at ¥120,000 and ¥70,000.

What it is worth on three salaries

The deduction lowers the income the tax is charged on, so what it is worth depends on your tax rate. The table takes the most it can give — premiums of ¥80,000 or more in each of the three categories, so ¥120,000 off for income tax and ¥70,000 for resident tax — on three salaries, worked out with the same engine as the take-home calculator. The assumptions: twelve equal monthly salaries and no bonus, single with no dependents, under 40, working in Tokyo and insured through 協会けんぽ at its 2026 rates, with the 2026 withholding tables. The calculator itself has no field for insurance premiums, so these figures are not on it.

SalaryIncome tax back in DecemberResident tax lower, from June 2027In all
¥3,000,000¥6,100¥7,000¥13,100
¥5,000,000¥6,100¥7,000¥13,100
¥7,000,000¥24,500¥7,000¥31,500

On ¥3,000,000 and ¥5,000,000 the income left after deductions is in the 5% income tax band, so ¥120,000 off it saves 5% of ¥120,000 plus the 2.1% reconstruction surtax on that, which the year-end calculation rounds down to the nearest ¥100. On ¥7,000,000 it is in the 20% band, and the same deduction is worth four times as much. Resident tax is a flat 10% on the income it is charged on, so its part is ¥7,000 on every salary here.

The income tax part arrives at once, in the December adjustment. The resident tax part is spread over the twelve payments of the bill that starts in June 2027, so it is under ¥600 a month. Either way it is a discount on premiums you were paying anyway: on the ¥240,000 of premiums behind the table, ¥13,100 back on ¥5,000,000 is about 5%.

2026 and 2027: more for a family with a dependent under 23

For the 2026 and 2027 tax years, somebody with a dependent relative under 23 gets a larger general life insurance category on new contracts: all premiums up to ¥30,000, half plus ¥15,000 up to ¥60,000, a quarter plus ¥30,000 up to ¥120,000, and at most ¥60,000, where it would otherwise be ¥40,000; with an old policy in the same category, the two together can also reach ¥60,000. Above ¥20,000 of premiums it gives more at every level. The other two categories are unchanged, and so is the ¥120,000 total, so the extra counts only where the other two leave room under it. It is an income tax rule: the resident tax table stays as above.

The change was made in the 2025 tax reform for 2026 alone and extended by a year in the 2026 reform. Where a married couple living together have a child under 23 who is a dependent, both of them can use the larger category on their own policies.

Questions people ask

What do I do with the life insurance certificate that came in October?

Give it to your employer with the Application for Deduction for Insurance Premiums (給与所得者の保険料控除申告書) for the year-end adjustment. Copy the premiums onto the form by category, attach the certificate, and the deduction is applied when the year’s income tax is settled in December.

How much tax does the life insurance deduction save?

At most ¥120,000 comes off the income your income tax is worked out on, and ¥70,000 off the income for resident tax. On a ¥5,000,000 salary in Tokyo that is ¥6,100 of income tax back in December and ¥7,000 less resident tax from the following June: ¥13,100 in all.

Does a life insurance policy from my home country count?

Not if it was taken out abroad with a foreign insurer: the National Tax Agency lists contracts made outside Japan with foreign insurers among those that do not qualify. A policy with a foreign insurer’s branch or subsidiary in Japan, made in Japan, can count.

I missed the year-end adjustment. Can I still claim it?

Yes, in a final tax return (確定申告) for the year, with the certificate attached or shown when you file. The return also corrects the resident tax, because the city office works from it.

For how the December figure is made up, and why a deduction claimed only at the year-end comes back all at once, see why December’s take-home is different.

Sources

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