Before you start

My Number
Ward registration
Employment records or business accounts
A determination of your residence status for tax purposes

Step-by-step

1
Understand the three tax residence categories
A non-resident is taxed only on Japanese-source income. A non-permanent resident — broadly, someone without Japanese domicile resident five years or less in the past decade — is taxed on Japanese income plus foreign income remitted to Japan. A permanent resident for tax purposes is taxed on worldwide income. Which one you are changes the answer completely, and it changes automatically over time.
OnlineWho: You
2
Let the year-end adjustment handle it if you are a straightforward employee
Employers run nenmatsu chōsei in December, reconciling the year's withholding against what you actually owe. Most employees never file a return at all. You submit deduction declarations to your employer rather than to the tax office.
Via employerWho: YouDecember
3
File a return if you are self-employed, founding a company, or have foreign income
The filing season runs mid-February to mid-March for the previous calendar year. Anyone on the startup route or working for themselves files their own return, and the blue return system gives a meaningful deduction in exchange for proper bookkeeping.
OnlineWho: YouFebruary–March
4
Budget for residence tax arriving in your second year
Jūminzei is assessed on the previous calendar year's income and billed from June. Your first year in Japan produces almost none because the assessment year had no Japanese income. Your second year is the real number and it arrives as a step change.
OnlineWho: You
5
Appoint a tax representative before leaving Japan
If you leave partway through a year you may still owe residence tax on income already earned. Appointing a tax representative — a person in Japan authorised to handle it — before you go is the clean solution. Leaving without doing so creates a debt that is difficult to settle from abroad.
In personWho: YouBefore departure
6
Check the foreign asset reporting obligation
Residents holding overseas assets above a threshold must file an annual report of foreign assets. It applies to permanent tax residents rather than to everyone, but the threshold is not high and the obligation is easy to overlook.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

My Number
Gensen chōshūhyō — the annual withholding statement from your employer
Business accounts, for the self-employed and company founders
Records of any foreign income and overseas assets
Deduction certificates for insurance, mortgage or dependants

Things most newcomers don’t know

Residence tax is billed a year in arrears, which produces a second-year shock and an exit trap.

Jūminzei is calculated on the previous calendar year's income and collected from the following June. Arrive in Japan and your first year is nearly free of it; your second carries the full amount for your first year's earnings. Worse, if you leave Japan you can still owe residence tax on income you have already earned and spent. Anyone planning a departure should settle it or appoint a tax representative before going.

Source: National Tax Agency

Founders on the startup route have no year-end adjustment and must file themselves.

The Japanese default — the employer reconciles everything in December and you never file — does not apply to anyone self-employed or running their own company. If you came here on Fukuoka's startup route you are outside that system from day one, and the blue return gives a substantial deduction in exchange for double-entry bookkeeping. Setting the accounting up properly in month one is far cheaper than reconstructing it in February.

Source: National Tax Agency

Non-permanent resident status shields foreign income, and it expires.

For roughly the first five years, a foreign national without Japanese domicile is taxed on Japanese-source income plus foreign income actually remitted into Japan — not on worldwide income. After that threshold you become a permanent resident for tax purposes and Japan taxes everything. Anyone with overseas investments or property should know exactly when that switch happens, because it is not announced.

Source: National Tax Agency

Furusato nōzei lets you redirect part of your residence tax and receive goods for it.

The hometown tax donation scheme allows residents to donate to a municipality of their choice, deduct almost all of it against residence and income tax, and receive a return gift — typically regional food or drink — worth a meaningful fraction of the donation. It is entirely legitimate, widely used by Japanese residents, and almost unknown among foreign ones. Kyushu municipalities are among the most popular destinations for it.

Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Common mistakes to avoid

Budgeting from your first year, when residence tax is almost nil.
Leaving Japan without settling residence tax or appointing a tax representative.
Running a startup here without setting up blue-return bookkeeping from the start.
Not knowing when your non-permanent resident status expires and worldwide taxation begins.
Never using furusato nōzei despite paying residence tax every year.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.