Japan Take-Home Pay Calculator (2026)

Why your take-home pay drops in your second year

Resident tax (jūminzei, 住民税) is charged by the city you live in on January 1, based on your income for the previous January–December. Your employer deducts it from your salary in 12 installments from June to the following May.

So if you start working in Japan this year, you pay no resident tax in your first year. From June of your second year, resident tax on your first year's income starts. If you arrived partway through the year, that first bill is small, and the full amount starts from June of your third year.

Once resident tax is fully charged, the same salary gives about ¥2,876,160 a year after all deductions (79.9% of gross pay).

Health insurance depends on your prefecture

Most employees of small and mid-sized companies are covered by the Japan Health Insurance Association (Kyokai Kenpo), whose rate differs by prefecture. The premium is split 50/50 with your employer. For 2026 the rate ranges from 9.21% in Niigata to 10.55% in Saga.

Large companies often run their own health insurance society (kenpo kumiai) with a different rate. If your payslip shows a different health insurance amount, that is the likely reason.

What is deducted from your salary

• Health insurance (kenkō hoken): your prefecture's rate, half paid by you. From age 40 to 64, long-term care insurance (1.62% in total) is added.
• Child and childcare support levy (kodomo kosodate shienkin): a new 0.23% charge collected with health insurance from April 2026, half paid by you.
• Employees' pension (kōsei nenkin): 18.3% of your standard monthly pay, half paid by you. If you leave Japan, you may be able to claim part of it back as a lump-sum withdrawal payment.
• Employment insurance (koyō hoken): 0.5% of your pay for most businesses.
• Income tax (shotokuzei): 5% to 45% on taxable income, plus a 2.1% reconstruction surtax. Withheld every month and settled in the year-end adjustment (nenmatsu chōsei) in December.
• Resident tax (jūminzei): 10% of the previous year's taxable income plus a flat ¥5,000 (including the forest environment tax), from June.

Social insurance is calculated on your standard monthly remuneration (hyōjun hōshū getsugaku), a banded amount set from your actual pay, so it moves in steps rather than exactly in line with your salary.

2026 tax changes: a bigger refund this December

Japan's 2026 tax reform raised the basic deduction to ¥1,040,000 for people with total income up to ¥4.89 million (a salary up to about ¥6.65 million), and raised the minimum employment income deduction to ¥740,000. Monthly withholding through November 2026 still uses the old tables, so the difference is returned to most employees in the December 2026 year-end adjustment. This calculator uses the new 2026 rules for the full year.

Assumptions

• You are a resident for tax purposes. Under Japanese law you are a resident if you have your home (domicile) in Japan or have lived here continuously for a year or more; if your job normally requires living in Japan for a year or more, you are presumed to be a resident from the day you arrive. Non-residents are taxed differently (a flat withholding rate without deductions) and are not covered here.
• You are an employee covered by Kyokai Kenpo, and your salary is the same every month. Bonuses are paid in June and December.
• Commuting allowance is excluded. It is tax-free up to ¥150,000 a month, but it does count toward social insurance, so your premiums may be slightly higher than shown.
• In the monthly timeline, income tax is spread evenly over the months you worked that year; in reality it is withheld monthly and corrected in the December year-end adjustment. Resident tax is shown as one twelfth each month (cities put the rounding in June).
• Resident tax uses the standard rate and the thresholds for the largest cities. If you had Japanese income before your first year shown here, your resident tax starts earlier.
• Deductions such as life insurance, iDeCo, medical expenses and the spouse special deduction are not included.