A Japanese payslip carries more separate lines than most, and the reason catches a lot of new arrivals out: salary here is taxed twice over, once by the national government and once by the city and prefecture you live in, and both taxes sit behind a wall of social insurance that comes off first. This is how a gross salary turns into take-home pay across the 2026 calendar year (Reiwa 8), for a common case, an employee in Tokyo, under 40, single with no dependants, paid in twelve equal monthly instalments with no bonus.
Social insurance comes off before any tax
The first deductions on the payslip are the four social insurance premiums, and for most earners they are larger than the income tax. Health insurance takes 4.925 percent, your half of the Kyokai Kenpo Tokyo branch rate of 9.85 percent for the 2026 fiscal year. The employees’ pension takes 9.15 percent, your half of the national 18.3 percent. A new child and child-rearing support contribution, introduced in April 2026, adds 0.115 percent, and employment insurance adds 0.5 percent. Together they come to 14.69 percent of pay.
The child and child-rearing support contribution is the one genuinely new line on a 2026 payslip. It funds expanded family benefits and is charged on the same standard remuneration as health insurance, at a combined 0.23 percent split evenly with your employer, so 0.115 percent falls on you. Two details catch payroll teams out. It is phased in, and the rate is set to rise each year through the 2028 fiscal year, so this is the lightest it will be. Its collection also runs a month behind the other premiums, so many workers first see it deducted from May 2026 pay rather than April. The Tokyo health rate itself edged down at the same time, from 9.91 to 9.85 percent from the March 2026 premium, which is why the health line is fractionally lighter than it was in 2025.
Two of these stop growing on a high salary. Health and the support contribution are charged only up to a standard monthly remuneration of 1,390,000 yen, about 16,680,000 yen a year, and the pension only up to 650,000 yen a month, about 7,800,000 yen a year. Above those ceilings the premiums freeze, which is why the effective social rate falls on large salaries. You can resolve every line for your own number with the Japan take-home pay calculator.
Turning salary into taxable income
Neither income tax is charged on gross pay. Salary first passes through the employment income deduction, a statutory allowance that stands at 650,000 yen at the bottom and rises with pay until it caps at 1,950,000 yen for salaries above 8.5 million. What remains is your employment income, the base both taxes work from.
From there the national tax subtracts your social insurance premiums and a basic deduction. The 2025 tax reform lifted that basic deduction to between 580,000 and 950,000 yen depending on income, and both changes carry into 2026, so national income tax now only starts at roughly 1.6 million yen of salary, up from the old 1.03 million yen threshold. The taxable base is rounded down to the nearest 1,000 yen before the brackets apply.
The national brackets and the surtax
National income tax runs in seven brackets, from 5 percent on the first 1,949,000 yen of taxable income up to 45 percent above about 40 million. On top of the scale result sits the reconstruction surtax, a flat 2.1 percent surcharge on the tax itself that has applied since 2013 and runs to 2037. The bracket figures are published by the National Tax Agency. To isolate the national portion alone, use the income tax calculator.
Resident tax, a year behind
The second income tax is resident tax (juminzei), billed by your city and prefecture. It works on its own base, with a smaller basic deduction of 430,000 yen, at a flat 10 percent, split 6 percent municipal and 4 percent prefectural. A 2,500 yen adjustment credit comes off, and a 5,000 yen per-capita charge goes on, which includes the 1,000 yen national forest environment tax. The standard rates and the per-capita amount are set out by the Tokyo Bureau of Taxation.
The quirk to plan around is timing. Resident tax is charged on the previous year’s income and billed from June of the following year, so a first-year employee pays none, and someone who leaves Japan still owes the final bill after they go. This calculator shows both taxes against the same year’s salary, which matches reality once your pay has been steady for a couple of years.
A worked example
A 5,000,000 yen salary in Tokyo loses 734,500 yen to social insurance, 119,400 yen to national income tax and 242,000 yen to resident tax, leaving 3,904,100 yen a year, about 325,000 yen a month. That is a combined deduction rate near 21.9 percent, and social insurance alone is more than the two income taxes put together. The pattern across the range, drawn from the same 2026 parameters, looks like this:
| Gross salary | National tax | Resident tax | Social insurance | Take-home | A month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ¥3,000,000 | ¥35,600 | ¥117,400 | ¥440,700 | ¥2,406,300 | ¥200,525 |
| ¥4,000,000 | ¥65,900 | ¥176,700 | ¥587,600 | ¥3,169,800 | ¥264,150 |
| ¥5,000,000 | ¥119,400 | ¥242,000 | ¥734,500 | ¥3,904,100 | ¥325,342 |
| ¥6,000,000 | ¥186,100 | ¥307,300 | ¥881,400 | ¥4,625,200 | ¥385,433 |
| ¥8,000,000 | ¥444,200 | ¥453,800 | ¥1,156,900 | ¥5,945,100 | ¥495,425 |
| ¥10,000,000 | ¥829,900 | ¥637,700 | ¥1,267,700 | ¥7,264,700 | ¥605,392 |
For reference, the National Tax Agency put the average private-sector salary at 4,780,000 yen in its 2024 survey, so the 5,000,000 yen row sits close to the middle of the market. Notice how the social insurance figure climbs steeply to 6 million but then slows: past the pension ceiling of 7,800,000 yen, only the uncapped employment premium keeps rising, which is why the 8 and 10 million rows show tax growing much faster than insurance.
Frequently asked questions
Why are there two income taxes on my salary? National income tax is withheld from each payslip during the year, and resident tax is billed separately by your municipality at 10 percent plus the small per-capita charge. They are genuinely two different taxes with two different bases, collected by two different authorities, which is why the payslip lists them apart.
Which health insurer does this assume? Kyokai Kenpo, the association scheme for small and mid-sized employers, at its Tokyo branch rate of 9.85 percent, split evenly with your employer. Each prefecture sets its own rate close to 10 percent, and large companies often run their own kenpo unions at lower rates, so your premium can differ by a few thousand yen a month.
Does it include the long-term care premium? No. Employees aged 40 to 64 pay an extra care insurance premium, about 0.8 percent of pay on your half. The figures here assume you are under 40. If you are 40 or older, expect take-home pay a little below the table.
Why is my real payslip a little different? Employers withhold from monthly tables and settle the exact annual income tax in the December year-end adjustment (nenmatsu chosei), and premiums come from standard-remuneration grades, bands of pay rather than your exact salary. Both move the real figures by around one percent either way. If you work reduced hours, the pro-rata salary calculator shows the full-time equivalent to compare against this table.
What is the new support contribution on my 2026 payslip? It is the child and child-rearing support levy, which started in April 2026 to fund family benefits. Your share is 0.115 percent of standard remuneration, half of the 0.23 percent combined rate, and it is set to rise in steps through the 2028 fiscal year. Because it is collected a month late, many people first see it in May 2026 pay.
What lowers the bill? iDeCo pension contributions are deductible in full against both taxes at your marginal rate, and furusato nozei donations convert most of next year’s resident tax into regional gifts for a flat 2,000 yen cost, within an income-based ceiling.
These figures are an estimate for orientation, not tax advice. Sources: the National Tax Agency (income tax brackets and the basic deduction), Kyokai Kenpo (2026 health premium rates) and the Tokyo Bureau of Taxation (resident tax rates and the per-capita levy). Confirm your own position with your municipality or a licensed tax accountant (zeirishi).