I'm interested in buying a stock(American company), but it cannot be purchased under NISA and can only be purchased under Tokutei and Ippan.

What are the complications I'll have to go through if I choose either?

I'm a company employee and my company handles all my taxes/nen matsu chosei etc.

If I ever sell those stocks, will I have to make separate filing by myself if I get any profit from those taxes? (No paper work if I sell it on loss?

I'm using Rakuten Shoken and am not a US taxpayer.

Can anyone please advise.

It's been almost two months since the last update on the sub's Take-Home Pay Calculator.

Investment income

New income types for investment income are available in the advanced mode income input:

• Capital gains/losses from the sale of securities
• Dividends
• Interest

Rules regarding different account types are applied automatically. The choice of whether to report income on a tax return or leave it to withholding can be made within each entry. Reported dividends can be elected to be taxed separately at flat rates or in aggregate with other income. For more general information on this, see the Guide to Designated (特定) Investment Accounts and Reasons to declare investment income.

When investment income is entered into the calculator, there will be an "Optimize reporting options" accordion below the entered investment income. This shows a comparison of the outcomes of different choices and tells which set of choices maximizes the take-home amount.

Foreign Tax Credit

If you have income that is allowed to be taxed by a foreign nation according to Japan's tax laws and tax treaties, you can generally claim a foreign tax credit to reduce the amount of Japanese tax you owe. With this update to the calculator, enter foreign tax along with the foreign income. If the foreign tax is assessed via tax return, enter it in the "Additional Deductions & Credits" modal. For more information on the foreign tax credit in general, see this Guide to Japan’s Foreign Tax Credit.

Minimum Tax on Ultra-High Income

Since adding support for income types with flat tax rates (15%) which are below the minimum tax rate (22.5% now, 30% from next year) it is possible to input income that is subject to this minimum tax. Assuming only income subject to the 15% flat tax rate, one would need over 1 billion yen (10 oku) in income before they owe any additional tax. See this page from the NTA for details.

Not Supported

The following (and more) is not currently supported. If you would like to see something supported, let us know.

• Japanese Dividend Tax Credit (配当控除)
• Listed Securities Capital Loss Carryforward (上場株式等に係る譲渡損失の繰越控除)
• Income from securities other than "Listed Securities" (上場株式等)
• Carryforward of unused Foreign Tax Credit
• Real estate income

This set of features was a lot of work, but I think there is plenty of polishing left to do. We will continue to improve the UX based on feedback. Let us know if you have issues or feedback.

Hello I won't go into all the details but - I will be moving to Japan end of next year for two years (language school) with a plan of after that of applying for a business manager visa* or at the very least applying for employment. My plan is to have a path to PR in <10 years but also grown-up enough to realise I have to plan for changes in Japan and the world. I have no dependants etc.

I am currently in the UK. I am a dual national UK-Australia. When I leave the UK for Japan I will have approx £200K that I need to invest. I am due a defined benefit pension that I can access early in the next decade (would prefer not to). This is all background to ask - can you recommend a specialist financial advisor in the UK or Japan that can help me with planning and investment?

* I am aware of the changes October 2025.

Quick question for foreign residents in Japan.

Have you ever paid resident tax, kokuho (health insurance) or nenkin (pension) late, or almost late?

If yes, what was the main reason?
A) I didn't know the bill was coming
B) I couldn't read the letter
C) I knew, but the money wasn't there when it was due
D) I just forgot
E) Something else

And did it make you worry about your visa renewal or PR?

A one-line answer like "C, June resident tax after I changed jobs, yes worried about PR" is perfect.

I'm a Japanese solo founder trying to understand this problem before building anything. No links, nothing to sell.

Hello, long story short I am doing SDOP. I live in the U.S, but have Japanese foreign accounts overseas that happen to be solely in my name, opened by relatives decades ago when I was a kids.

One of these accounts is a Nomura account. I was able to obtain documents from 2020-2025, but nothing preceding. The account was apparently opened around 2000, so I have no idea what the cost basis of the account is or what was invested in it.

The Nomura account had an investment in something called, “Thai investment fund.” It paid out about 10000 yen and 8000 yen in dividends in 2020 and 2021, and the fund expired in 2022 with the money transferred into a Nomura MRF.

The MRF also received dividends between 2020-2025. 2020 had like 20 yen, 2021 had 15 yen, 2022 had 40 yen, 2023 had 90 yen, 2024 had 1200 yen, and 2025 had about 4000 yen in dividends from this Nomura account.

The Nomura account value seems to have ranged around 1.2-1.3 million yen from 2020-25, being about 8-10k usd. It was below de minimis but considering the distributions from MRF and Thai Funds, is this something I need to file a form 8621 with my SDOP application?

Me(24M) and my gf(20F)(future wife) want to move to Japan within a 5-10 years outlook and eventually retire there. Both Canadian

I currently work in tech and she nursing.

I just got my first RRSP matching job and am wondering if i should even start investing into it as I'll be moving(although things can always change). I already have a TFSA i invest in.

We were also thinking of China but it seems like a permanent residency will be next to impossible

Needless to say I'm scared as days go on it seems more and more realistic but scary when the big moves happen.

Need a little guidance on inheritance.

Mother passed away in 2023, no will but her intent was to pass on anything that was hers to me. The house she lived with my father passed onto him as there was no will and no cash. Then he sold the house in 2025 Feb. and later gave me a lump of funds in 2026 through our bank accounts based outside of Japan. I believe Japan won’t recognise inheritance from mother to me and this will likely be a living parent transferring early inheritance as he is above 60. The amount is under the 50m yen required to declare assets abroad so I don’t need to do that form.

A bit about me, on spouse visa since March 2025, didn’t speak to my father until necessary in 2026 which was when he did brought up transferring me a sum in connecting to mothers passing.

Am I correct that I will need to lodge during February- March 2027.

1. Souzoku-zei Shinkoku-sho (相続税申告書)
   2.i usuallylodge Kakutei Shinkoku (確定申告) with help of a firm.

And maybe something else ?

Appreciate some input on others who’ve had a similar experience. Happy to add any other details if queried.

"Like BRI" is on purpose as they seem to be the most famous one and I've been contacted by others as well. Other than that I've been getting weird advice from friends that I must invest in property and how in X years time it'll turn into an income and how I can actually reduce my taxes in the meantime to save money. It feels like these "opportunities" either lose money or turn so little profit over their lifetime that they're not really worth it. I've read some posts here but those are ~2-3 years old at this point so maybe there are some new findings that people can share.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

1. If it's really that profitable, companies wouldn't be aggressively looking for customers for these amazing opportunities. They would be keeping all the profits to themselves. Also they seem to be targeting foreign employees working at foreign companies with higher salaries than average who may have not so clear picture of how taxes or real investment market works. I feel like they're using their customers to shift their risk, refinance and get some actual income flow.
2. Real estate always depreciates here unlike other countries, so I'm buying something new and will have to sell it for a loss down the line. It may be even lower than the open market value as I have to use the same investment companies to sell based on some comments I read. I can probably claim this depreciation in my taxes as a loss to help offset some stuff. Most people assume that real estate appreciates, only the land may appreciate but we're not buying a share of the land as far as I know.
3. Looking things over just on a tax perspective my rental income will be less than the loan repayments. This will net a loss that I'll use to reduce my taxable income now while I earn a high income. This reduction may even pull me down to the previous tax bracket. This is where they mainly mention savings. Essentially I'm losing money now to gain some in the future when my income is lower.
4. One thing that worries me is that some people think that there is some sort of bubble, especially with the prices of real estate in and around Tokyo. If this bubble pops sometime during the lifetime of the loan, it's possible that the value of the real estate will depreciate even more. This may result in an overall loss.
5. They handle building maintenance to finding tenants so it's hands off but this comes with a lot of hidden fees. For example I've heard that they get the building management fee from you. But I've always paid the building management fee as a tenant. This makes me think that for some of the "expenses" they may be double dipping to inflate their income on your expense.

Anybody have any other points to add or comments about these? Is it possible that I'm actually wrong in my thinking?

Hi!

I realized I may have been mistakenly declaring earthquake insurance of my YETA for the past 3 years.

We have a house to whoch both named to me and my house, housing loan is also named on both of us.

So I also assumed the earthquake insurance would be named to us both, but it's only to my spouse actually.

Now, past 3 years, I've been writing on our YETA portal the earthquake insurance premium details and writing every single thing written on the certificate to that portal (including the policholder's name which is my spouse). Bear in mind, the first time I did so, I actually asked the admin if I should be doing these and he/she said it's okay to do so. But now years later, I see in their portal that one should not write the insurance premium if it's not under the employee's name.

So now my worry is, I'm probably getting the tax deductible benefit which I should not have, and I want to correct it if possible.

Any advices or ideas how I can correct this?

(Of course now I will not declare it anymore.)

Thanks!

I have PR and am on a fixed-rate mortgage at SMBC Prestia. The period ends in December, and they will not allow me to switch to a variable rate. The fixed interest rate is now much higher than when I started, and will likely climb quite a bit by January 2027, so I am hoping to refinance with a different bank. I have 13 years of payments left so variable with 5-year rule is an option dependon the rate. I doubt the big banks will approve me, so any ideas for alternative banks will be appreciated.

I’ve been living in Japan for several years and am married to a Japanese citizen. I’ve done some freelance work on and off while being a dependent under my husband’s insurance but I think I’ve misunderstood the ¥1.3 million dependent income threshold and assumed that because I was earning below that, I didn’t need to file a tax return.

Now I’m realizing that wasn’t necessarily right...
And looking back, there are about three years where I may have needed to file but didn’t. My freelance income those years were relatively small, under ¥1 million gross per year, although one year might have been closer to ¥1.1 million. Those amounts are before any business expenses. That said, I have no idea if I have any/all records of expenses still from those years…

I haven’t received any notices or been contacted by the tax office. I just realized the mistake myself and want to sort it out properly. I’m planning to go back through my bank statements, emails and payment records to reconstruct everything, then file whatever returns are required and pay any taxes or penalties owed.

But there’s a few things I’m wondering and if anyone has any experience they could speak on:

-Has anyone here voluntarily filed several years of late returns after genuinely misunderstanding the rules? What was the process like?

-With relatively low income like this, what sort of latefiling penalties or interest might apply?

-Could voluntarily correcting past tax filings cause problems when renewing a spouse visa, assuming everything is filed and paid?

I can’t really afford to hire an accountant, so I’m hoping to handle as much as possible myself, with help from the tax office if needed and I’m not trying to avoid paying anything. I just misunderstood how the dependent threshold and tax filing requirements worked, and I’d like to get everything straightened out.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s dealt with something similar. Thank you!!

Apologies for new account, I wish to keep this private. I have a corporate account with DC Sompo that has made some significant gains since starting (up over 34%) and year to date 15%. I know we cant predict the future, but I think a downturn is coming for the stock market. Since my portfolio is 75% stock heavy, I'm looking for anyone with similar thinking that is looking to lock in profits by switching to a more insurance type focused product, or bonds. Basically something that isnt going to lose a significant amount of the money built up during any downturn. I understand there is an insurance product that requires a term lock to receive the interest and not lose money, but wondering if there are any other products out there with lower interest returns that are not as susceptible to downturn and might not have penalties. I still plan to contribute to the same funds that got me to these profits, but the existing money I dont want to lose value, if possible.

Normally, if i was in my 30's I might just let it ride, but I'm in my 50's and DC Sompo has contributions only until 60, so any significant downturn would not have much time to bounce back before I would be looking to withdraw any portion of it.

Has anyone else been thinking similarly?

Looking at my nenkin statement, and I haven't satisfied the 10 year contribution period yet. I've left Canada for good and will start employee pension payments early. I'll also have further Canadian pensions starting at 65. Does anyone have experience with my sort of situation, or even close to it? I'd like to ask some questions, thank you!

Hello, I recently moved to Kyoto as a student. Not earning in Japan via baito yet, but have foreign income from the UK, and therefore I believe I have to pay or at least file for remittance tax here in Japan.

How do I go about finding a tax accountant that can help file for 2026 in this area please (ideally familiar with UK taxation)?

Please help redirect if not the correct subreddit. Thank you. 🙏🏼

Wife got a promotion and a raise at work. We don't use much of her income as it is. She's currently putting 30,000 yen a month into NISA (through Rakuten banking).

But now that there's more excess income, I want to get her a dedicated investment account (probably Interactive Brokers?) that offers more control. Then have chunks of her paycheques automatically transferred on a schedule from her bank (MUFJ) and into the investment account (IBKR) and then also automatically invested inside IBKR.

• Is it possible? Anyone else doing this smoothly?
• What are some healthy ETF's that she could buy?
• Can she buy US ETF's? Or as a Japanese national, is she restricted to TSE?

I've invested quite a lot back home. But I'm a total noob when it comes to investing here in Japan. I just know that we should be putting this extra income somewhere better than a savings.

Any tips on how not to squander the opportunity would be greatly appreciated.

Edited: corrected NISA max contribution error

Hi there,

just found this article, which if true would completely derail my understanding of taxation of non remitted oversea capital gains as a non-permanent resident.

They distinguish between securities acquired before FY2017 and after.

For securities bought after April 1 2017 they wrote:

②-2 If you were a non-permanent resident at the time of acquisition:
Capital gains from the sale of such overseas securities fall under domestic source income and are taxed regardless of whether the funds are remitted to Japan.
The most important point is that if a person was a non-permanent resident at both the time of acquisition and the time of sale, the principle of remittance-based taxation does not apply to securities acquired on or after April 1, 2017.

And an example:

Case 2: Example of taxable income
While residing in Japan as a non-permanent resident in 2022, you newly purchased US stocks through a US brokerage account. You sold these stocks in 2025 using the same account. The profits from the sale are currently held in a US bank account.
Determination: Since the acquisition was made on or after April 1, 2017, and during your period as a “non-permanent resident,” the capital gains are considered domestic-sourced income (for Japanese tax purposes) and are therefore subject to taxation in Japan, even if there is no remittance to Japan.

So according to my understanding of this only non remitted oversea gains ate not taxable of bought before April 2017. Is that right?

EDIT:

The wiki has that indeed covered and what they wrote is right: WIKI

Hello r/JapanFinance,
I am currently living in Japan for several years, and my sister used to work here too until few years ago moved to US. But before leaving Japan since she didnt have bank account in US at that time she transferred her savings to my account, so I essentially was holding her money. Now she wants me to transfer her money back to her but we realized we cant transfer as gift .So is there a way i can transfer her money around 3mil yen to her in US as "sending /returning money to former resident of Japan" or any other legal way? It doesnt seem to be against law, but might be breaking terms /conditions of bank (JP post bank) to temporary keep former resident's money. But I'm also scared if this can put my savings, job, and visa in danger even if technically i wasnt breaking any law. Is there any legal way i can send her money back to her? Since its her hard earned years of savings from working in Japan for several years. Please let me know if anyone ever encountered similar situation. I am also planning to get authorized legal professionals advice/consultation regarding this matter.

It’s a follow up to my first post here.

First of all thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and thoughts. It seems like we will be proceeding with a purchase. But it gave me and my wife things to discuss and reconsider.

Since the value of the property is mainly derived from the land, we are reevaluating an option we initially discarded. It’s a secondhand property in the same area as the new house we are currently purchasing. It sits on a larger plot of land, but it has its own imperfections.

We wanted to get an opinion if the secondhand hand house is actually a better option and its shortcomings are worth accepting.

About the new house:
- Pre-built detached house, 4LDK. It’s located in the south of Tokyo (Setagaya-Meguro-Shinagawa) along one of the major Tokyu Lines. Plot: 80 sq.m. Corner lot. The house: 125sq. m plus parking. Cost: 160M.
- Things we don’t like. Feels like, and is, a generic cookie cutter house. Built by a small local construction company, so we are not sure if it’s an issue or not in terms of quality. Complies with the lowest earthquake resistance required by law. Again I’m not sure if it’s a usual thing or not.

Secondhand option:
- 注文自宅 by 住友不動産. 10 years old. 4LDK. Same location as the above. Plot: 105 sq.m. The house: 135 sq.m. plus parking. Cost: 160M probably possible to negotiate to around 155M. Two access roads (at the front and the back of the house).
- Things we don’t like. There is one room that on paper is 7畳 but it’s not rectangular. It’s more like a trapezoid, so it has a sharp angle which essentially reduces its useful space. It needs some renovation work which will add to the total cost. The kitchen is not an open space, it’s isolated from the LD. I’m sure the separating paper wall can be removed and kitchen remodeled to be like an open space LDK, but not sure how much it’s gonna cost us. Lastly the owners apparently have mental health issues. The house isn’t well kept, looked like a hoarder house. Also we heard from the real estate agent that due the mental illness the were difficult to work with. So it makes us worry if they might create problems in the middle of the sale process.

So yeah, neither of them is perfect. If we remove the issues coming from the current owners, I would say I liked the secondhand house more, it felt cozier and not generic. Counting the fact that it has 25 sq. m. bigger plot of land, I’m thinking it will have more value in case we decide to liquidate. But the new house is ready to move in option, with no renovation or possible interaction with unstable owners.

Are we complicating everything, should we just go with our original plan? Or is it worth stopping for a bit to reevaluate the secondhand option?

I owned a house, but due to change job, I have to relocate far from my home. My house vacant but I cant rent it out as my home loan rules omit that. I think of changing my loan to property investment loan 不動産投資ローン(other financial institution) for individual. Use that loan to pay off my home loan. I know the interest rate will be higher but it is better as now I have to pay home loan and apartment rent. Anyone experiance with this kind of situations? What bank does have this kind of service? I am probably not return to the house in future.

This is a question around transferring a large sum of money that is held in a Japan post bank account to an Australian bank account for a Japanese who has been living in Australia for the past 30 years.

My Japanese father has been living in Australia since 1990. We recently found out that he had received a lump sum payment into his Japan post bank account which we think relates to the maturity of a pension annuity policy held with Meiji Yasuda (he doesn’t remember much about taking out this policy and we are relying on google translate)

We emailed JP bank on what our options are to transfer this money to Australia. They said that if we reside overseas we are unable to make international remittances to overseas accounts, and that we would have to use other methods other than the banks services. Additionally, they mentioned that as my father does not reside in Japan he should close his Japan post bank account.

My question is - by closing his Japan post bank account will he be physically receiving the cash on the spot? If so, what other options are available besides physically bringing this money into Australia? We want to avoid physically carrying cash, but if we have to, what are somethings we should be aware of or remember to do besides customs declaration, bringing bank statements, lump sum payment statement etc?

Appreciate any help on this!

Hi all

I just received an obvious test spam (from a mos.jp email address with just "hello" as both title and text), on the email address I use exclusively for furusato-tax.jp - that specific email has never been used anywhere else.

So I can say for certain either furusato-tax.jp, or that some municipality I gave to, have been breached.

Akita city (秋田市) has reported a breach on the 16th, due to sagawa express shipping website being breached. However I did not donate to Akita city (ever), so there is likely from another data breach that I am not aware of.

With he rise of AI-supported attacks on customer database, everyone should be extra careful of phishing.

But furusato data contains both home address and a tax-related event, so we may see creative letter sent to your home, such as NTA asking for money due to "mistake", so be extra careful.

Stay safe everyone - Firefox + ublock origin (on both PC and android) is a good way to start.

Does anyone use a Japan Post Bank account for freelance work, or is it mandatory to open a business account? Thank you!!!

This year's NISA is already full and I'm just contributing the smallest amount possible for the monthly allotment. When NISA 2027 allotment opens up, I want to sell funds in Tokutei and move them to NISA without injecting any new money into either, so 2027 allotment will be as full as possible at the earliest time. I'm doing emaxis all country in both Tokutei/NISA.

As the title says, should I sell Tokutei in mid/end Dec and buy NISA in early Jan? Or is it better to do both actions in Jan? Does it matter?

I guess if I do both in Jan, both actions will complete more quickly because there is no bank holidays then.

If it matters, these are the only investment actions I will do in both years, besides paying into ideco and contributing the smallest possible amount monthly to monthly NISA

EDIT: Considering time in the market, I guess doing both in Jan is slightly better but the difference it woudl make is marginal? I'm thinking it probably doesn't need to be in Jan either, as long as I sell/buy quickly before end of 2027? If I do them in Jan, I could just literally not think about it for the rest of the year