Tax in Japan for working holidaymakers

The short version

You will be given a My Number once you register your address; your employer and bank will ask for it. How you are taxed depends on how long you stay. If you are in Japan for less than a year you are generally a non-resident, taxed at a flat rate on your Japanese wages with nothing to file. If you stay a year or more you are a resident, taxed at progressive rates with a tax-free portion at the bottom, and you may be owed a refund. The sting in the tail is residence tax, a roughly 10% local tax charged on the previous year's income and billed the following year, which can arrive after you have gone home.

What My Number is and how you get one

My Number (the individual number) is a 12-digit number that identifies you across Japanese administrative systems, including tax. Employers and banks request it, and you give it when you start a job or open an account. Source: Digital Agency, My Number system.

You do not apply for the number itself. It is assigned after you complete your resident registration at the municipal (city or ward) office, and a notification is sent to your registered address. You can then optionally apply for the physical My Number Card. For the order this fits into during your first weeks, see the getting started guide.

Keep your number private. Give it to your employer for payroll and to your bank when asked, but treat it as sensitive identity information otherwise.

Are you a resident or a non-resident for tax?

This is the single most important thing to get right, because it changes how much tax you pay and whether you can claim any back.

Japan classifies everyone, regardless of nationality, as either a resident or a non-resident for tax purposes. You are a non-resident unless you have a domicile in Japan or have had a residence in Japan continuously for one year or more. Source: NTA, No.12006 Tax on the income of a non-resident and JETRO, overview of individual tax system.

The NTA addresses working holidaymakers directly. A working holiday visitor who stays less than one year is basically treated as a non-resident. When a non-resident receives a salary in Japan, income tax and the special income tax for reconstruction are withheld at a flat 20.42%, and that withholding completes their tax. A non-resident in that position cannot file a final return, so there is no refund of the tax taken from the salary. Source: NTA, No.12020 Working-holiday visa and filing returns for refund.

If you stay in Japan a year or more, you become a resident for tax purposes and are taxed at the progressive rates below, with deductions and a tax-free portion that the flat non-resident rate does not give you. Because tax residency is fact-specific and turns on your actual time and ties in Japan, check the NTA guidance or ask a tax office if your situation is borderline.

Income tax (national)

Japan uses withholding, called gensen choshu: your employer takes income tax off each pay and remits it. The tax year is the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December.

For residents (and for non-residents taxed on an aggregate basis), national income tax is progressive across seven bands. Your taxable income is your earnings after the employment-income deduction and other deductions, so the rate applies to a figure lower than your gross pay.

Source: NTA, No.2260 Income tax rates (current as of 1 April 2025), corroborated in English by JETRO, individual tax system, Table 3-7.

On top of income tax, a special income tax for reconstruction of 2.1% of the income tax amount applies through to 2037. It is added to the income tax and collected with it (this is what turns the 20% non-resident rate into the 20.42% figure above). Source: NTA No.2260 and JETRO 3.7.5.

On typical working-holiday earnings, most people sit in the bottom one or two bands.

Residence tax (local inhabitant tax)

This is the gotcha. Residence tax, or individual inhabitant tax (jumin-zei), is a local tax made up of a prefectural part and a municipal part. The standard income-based rates are:

• Prefectural tax: 4%
• Municipal tax: 6%

So roughly 10% in total, plus a small flat-rate component. Source: JETRO, individual tax system, Table 3-9 (standard rates of individual inhabitant tax).

Two features make this trip people up:

1. It is assessed on the previous year's income. The income-based part is charged on what you earned in the prior year.
2. It is billed the following year, to whoever is registered as living there on 1 January. Residence tax is levied on people with a domicile in Japan as of 1 January each year. Source: JETRO 3.7.6.

Put together: if you work through one year, you can receive a residence-tax bill the next year based on that earlier income, even though you are earning less, or nothing, by then. If you have left Japan before or during the year the bill falls due, you are still liable for it.

Note that the rates above are standard rates; individual local governments can set rates that differ from the standard, and a small fixed-amount component also applies (now including a forest environment levy). Check your own municipality for the exact figures.

The year-end adjustment and getting money back

If you are a resident employee with one employer, your employer usually performs a year-end adjustment (nenmatsu chosei) in December, reconciling the tax withheld across the year against what you actually owe. If too much was withheld, the difference comes back to you through payroll.

If the year-end adjustment does not cover your situation, or you worked only part of the year, or you had more than one employer, you may instead file a final tax return (kakutei shinkoku). For residents, the final return is filed between 16 February and 15 March of the following year, reporting the previous calendar year's income. Source: NTA, No.12011 Final tax return.

Filing a return is also how residents claim a refund of over-withheld tax. The NTA runs an online return-preparation corner you can use from home. Source: NTA, Individual Income Tax.

Remember the residency rule: a working holidaymaker treated as a non-resident (under a year in Japan) generally cannot file a final return for a salary refund, because the 20.42% withholding completes their tax. Source: NTA No.12020.

Leaving Japan

If you leave Japan but still have tax matters to settle, such as a return to file or residence tax outstanding, you can appoint a tax representative (tax agent) who resides in Japan to deal with it for you. You do this by submitting a "Notification of Tax Agent for income tax / consumption tax" to the tax office for your place of tax payment. Source: NTA, No.12004 Income tax information for an individual who will leave Japan.

The NTA sets out the two paths:

• If you submit the tax-agent notification before you leave, your representative files your return and pays your tax for the year between 16 February and 15 March of the following year.
• If you leave without appointing a tax agent, you must file a quasi-final return and pay the tax before you depart.

Source: NTA No.12004. For the procedures to run through before departure, see NTA, No.12021 Procedures before departing from Japan.

Because residence tax can be billed after you go, a tax representative is also the practical way to handle that final bill once you are home.

Tax treaties

The UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada each have a tax treaty (tax convention) with Japan, designed to prevent the same income being taxed twice. Treaties can reduce or exempt Japanese tax on certain income, but the provisions differ by treaty and by income type, and the relief usually has to be claimed with the right form rather than applied automatically. For wages paid by a Japanese employer to a working holidaymaker, do not assume an exemption applies; the NTA notes that salary a non-resident receives from a Japanese company is not subject to treaty exemption in the usual case. Sources: NTA No.12006, section 4, NTA No.12020, and MOF, Japan's tax convention network. If you have income from your home country while in Japan, or a borderline case, check the specific treaty or ask the tax office.

Verified on 23 June 2026 by the WHE research team. Sources: digital.go.jp · nta.go.jp · jetro.go.jp · mof.go.jp. How we verify →