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 with 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 or have foreign income
The filing season runs mid-February to mid-March for the previous calendar year. The blue return system gives a meaningful deduction in exchange for proper double-entry bookkeeping, which is worth setting up in month one rather than reconstructing in February.
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 on top of the same salary.
OnlineWho: You
5
Know what the Hiroshima bill is actually made of
The per-capita portion from FY2024 is ¥3,000 to Hiroshima City plus ¥1,500 to Hiroshima Prefecture — of which ¥500 is the ひろしまの森づくり県民税 forest levy — plus ¥1,000 for the national Forest Environment Tax collected alongside it, so ¥5,500 a year regardless of income. The income-based portion is 10% of last year's taxable income, split 8% city and 2% prefecture because Hiroshima is an ordinance-designated city.
OnlineWho: YouBilled from June
6
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 one creates a debt that is very difficult to settle from abroad.
In personWho: YouBefore departure

Documents you’ll need

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

Things most newcomers don’t know

Hiroshima's per-capita residence tax is ¥5,500, and ¥500 of that is a levy on forests.

The flat portion everyone pays regardless of income is ¥3,000 city, ¥1,500 prefecture and ¥1,000 national Forest Environment Tax. The prefectural ¥1,500 is above the ¥1,000 standard because Hiroshima adds the ひろしまの森づくり県民税, introduced in FY2007 and extended since, which funds thinning and maintenance of neglected forest. It is small money but it is a real difference against a prefecture like Saitama, which levies nothing extra — and it is the sort of line on a first bill that people cannot otherwise account for.

Source: Hiroshima City; Hiroshima Prefecture

Being a designated city changes who your 10% goes to, not how much it is.

The income-based residence tax is 10% everywhere in Japan, but the split moved from the usual 6% municipal / 4% prefectural to 8% / 2% in ordinance-designated cities from FY2018, when responsibility for teachers' salaries transferred to those cities. Hiroshima is one of them. Your total is unchanged; what changes is which line of the notice carries which figure, which matters only when you are trying to reconcile a bill against an explanation written for a different city.

Source: Hiroshima City

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 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 already earned and spent. Settle it or appoint a tax representative before going.

Source: National Tax Agency

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

The hometown tax donation scheme lets residents 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. Hiroshima Prefecture's own municipalities return oysters and lemons, which is a reasonable argument for donating close to home.

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.
Not knowing when non-permanent resident status expires and worldwide taxation begins.
Reading a Tokyo explanation of the 6%/4% split against a Hiroshima 8%/2% bill and concluding something is wrong.
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.