Japan tax changes for 2026

Data sources

Both years' rules are read from datasets that record where each figure came from and when it applies. 2026 took effect on 1 January 2026.

1. Japan: income tax, the reconstruction surtax, inhabitant tax and social insurance, 2026

   National Tax Agency, Reiwa 8 tax reform: the increase in the basic deduction; National Tax Agency, No.1410 employment income deduction; National Tax Agency, No.2260 income tax rates; National Tax Agency, No.1130 social insurance premium deduction; Japan Health Insurance Association, FY2026 premium rates by prefecture; Japan Health Insurance Association, child-rearing support levy rate; Japan Pension Service, employees pension insurance premiums; Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, individual inhabitant tax.

   Effective 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026. Retrieved 29 August 2026. Within its effective period.

   Calendar year 2026. Three parameter vintages are live in Japan at once and mixing them is the usual error: income tax here uses the Reiwa 8 reform, which raised the employment income deduction minimum to 740,000 yen and the basic deduction to 1,040,000 yen, and not the Reiwa 7 figures still shown on some older National Tax Agency pages. The reconstruction surtax of 2.1% still applies; from 2027 it falls to 1.1% and a 1% defence surtax replaces the difference, leaving the combined 2.1% multiplier unchanged. There is no fixed-amount tax cut in 2026: that was a one-off for 2024. The child-rearing support levy of 0.23%, new from April 2026, is included and is the item most often missing from a calculator ported from FY2025. Inhabitant tax is legally charged on the previous calendar year's income and collected from June to May; this models it on the current year on a steady-state assumption, which is right for someone whose pay is stable and wrong in the year they start work, change income sharply or leave Japan. Not modelled: bonuses as a separate base, so the annual salary is spread evenly over twelve months and the separate bonus caps never bind; the spouse deduction and the age categories of the dependant deduction, so every dependant is treated as a general dependant; municipalities that levy above the standard rate; the non-taxable thresholds for grade 2 and grade 3 municipalities, only grade 1 being modelled; and workers accident compensation insurance, which is rated by industry.

   How we checked these figures

   Premiums are computed on actual monthly remuneration clamped to the statutory floors and caps rather than on the standard remuneration grade tables, which the two insurers publish only as PDF and spreadsheet files. Within a grade the error is bounded by the width of one band and the caps, which is where the money is, are modelled exactly. The engine is pinned to the authorities' own component figures rather than to any end-to-end table, because no Japanese authority publishes one: the National Tax Agency worked example of 974,000 yen of tax on 7,000,000 of taxable income, the association's Tokyo premiums at a 300,000 standard monthly remuneration, and the 1,780,000 yen threshold at which the reformed deductions cancel out to zero tax. Payroll vendors do publish gross-to-net tables but disagree with each other by up to 8% at higher salaries, so none is used as an oracle.

2. Japan: income tax, the reconstruction surtax, inhabitant tax and social insurance, 2025

   National Tax Agency, Reiwa 7 tax reform: review of the basic deduction and the employment income deduction; National Tax Agency, No.2260 income tax rates; Japan Health Insurance Association, FY2025 premium rates by prefecture; Japan Pension Service, employees pension insurance premiums; Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, employment insurance premium rates for FY2025; Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, individual inhabitant tax.

   Effective 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026. Past its effective period.

   Calendar year 2025, under the Reiwa 7 tax reform, which applied to the whole of 2025 through the December year-end adjustment: the employment income deduction minimum rose from 550,000 to 650,000 yen, and the basic deduction became 950,000 yen up to 1,320,000 yen of income, 880,000 to 3,360,000, 680,000 to 4,890,000, 630,000 to 6,550,000 and 580,000 to 23,500,000. Social insurance uses the FY2025 rates, from the March 2025 premium: the Japan Health Insurance Association's prefectural rates, long-term care at 1.59%, and employment insurance at 0.55% for the employee. There was no child-rearing support levy in 2025; it starts in April 2026. Inhabitant tax is modelled on the current year on a steady-state assumption. Not modelled: bonuses as a separate base; the spouse deduction, the special deduction for relatives aged 19 to 22 new in 2025, and the age categories of the dependant deduction; municipalities above the standard rate; non-taxable thresholds outside grade 1 municipalities; and workers accident compensation insurance.

   How we checked these figures

   The basic deduction schedule and the 650,000 yen minimum are quoted from the National Tax Agency's Reiwa 7 reform page; the prefectural health rates, from Hokkaido at 10.31% to Okinawa at 9.44% with Tokyo at 9.91%, from the association's FY2025 table. Income tax brackets, the reconstruction surtax, the inhabitant tax rates and the pension rate of 18.3% are unchanged from 2026.