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.
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 owe. Most employees never file a return at all.
Via employerWho: YouDecember
3
File a return if you are self-employed, on a research grant, or have foreign income
The filing season runs mid-February to mid-March for the previous calendar year. Academic and research income can be structured in ways an ordinary employer's year-end adjustment does not cover, so check rather than assume — and note that some tax treaties exempt visiting researchers and teachers for a limited period, which has to be claimed rather than applied automatically.
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. Your second year is the real number and it arrives as a step change on the same salary.
OnlineWho: You
5
Know what the Sendai bill is made of
The per-capita portion from FY2024 is ¥3,000 to Sendai City plus ¥2,200 to Miyagi Prefecture — of which ¥1,200 is the みやぎ環境税 environmental surcharge — plus ¥1,000 for the national Forest Environment Tax, so ¥6,200 a year regardless of income. The income-based portion is 10% of last year's taxable income, split 8% city and 2% prefecture because Sendai 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 in Japan 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

Sendai's per-capita residence tax is ¥6,200 — ¥1,200 above the national floor, and it is an environment levy.

The flat portion everyone pays regardless of income is ¥3,000 city, ¥2,200 prefecture and ¥1,000 national Forest Environment Tax. Miyagi's prefectural figure is above the ¥1,000 standard because of the みやぎ環境税, a per-capita environmental surcharge that has run since FY2011 and is legislated through FY2032. It is the largest such prefectural surcharge among Japan's major cities — Hiroshima adds ¥500, Saitama adds nothing — and it is the line on a first bill that people cannot otherwise account for.

Source: Sendai City; Miyagi Prefecture

The ¥500 reconstruction surcharges ended in FY2023 and were replaced, not removed.

From FY2014 to FY2023 both the municipal and prefectural per-capita portions carried a temporary ¥500 uplift to fund post-2011 reconstruction — ¥1,000 in total. That ended after FY2023, and from FY2024 the national Forest Environment Tax of ¥1,000 began being collected alongside residence tax. For a taxpayer the headline sum is broadly unchanged; what changed is which government the money goes to. Guides written before 2024 describe the old structure and reconcile badly against a current bill.

Source: Sendai City

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. Sendai is one of them. Your total is unchanged; the line items differ from an explanation written for a smaller municipality.

Source: Sendai City

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 worth a meaningful fraction of the donation. It is entirely legitimate and widely used by Japanese residents, and almost unknown among foreign ones. Coastal Miyagi and Iwate municipalities are among the more popular destinations, and for a resident here that has an obvious logic to it.

Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Common mistakes to avoid

Budgeting from your first year, when residence tax is almost nil.
Reading a pre-2024 explanation of the reconstruction surcharge against a current bill and concluding the figures are wrong.
Leaving Japan without settling residence tax or appointing a tax representative.
Assuming a research or teaching post is covered by an ordinary employer year-end adjustment without checking the treaty position.
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.