Country guideTax residency
Tax residency in Japan: how the day count works
Japan has no 183-day rule. You are a resident if you have a jusho, a domicile, in Japan, or if you have maintained a kyosho, a place of abode, there for one year or more. Residents are then split by a second test: an aggregate stay of five years or less within the preceding ten makes a foreign national a non-permanent resident.
What is the day threshold in Japan?
There is no annual threshold. The National Tax Agency puts the default the other way round: you are considered a non-resident in Japan for tax purposes unless you have a domicile or had a residence continuously for one year or more in Japan. Nothing in that sentence counts days inside a year.
What Japan does count is longer. Once you are a resident, a second classification decides how far Japanese tax reaches, and it runs on a decade. A resident who is not a Japanese national and whose aggregate stay in Japan is five years or less within the preceding ten years is a non-permanent resident. Everyone else who is resident, meaning Japanese nationals and foreign nationals past that five-year mark, is a resident other than a non-permanent resident. The National Tax Agency states the non-resident default, and PwC's Japan summary gives the three categories.
| Day threshold | None annually. A residence held for one year or more, or a domicile |
|---|---|
| Counting window | One continuous year to become resident, then five years within the preceding ten |
| Partial days | No part-day convention, because neither test tallies separate days |
| Other triggers | A jusho, meaning domicile, makes you resident with no waiting period |
| Tax authority | National Tax Agency (NTA), through your local tax office |
| Return deadline | 15 March following the tax year |
| Source | National Tax Agency, PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries |
Calendar year or rolling window?
Rolling, on two different scales, with the calendar year used only for filing. The first test measures one continuous year of maintaining a place of abode, starting whenever you establish it. The second measures an aggregate stay across the ten years immediately preceding, which is a genuine rolling window and behaves like the Georgian or Greek tests stretched out by a factor of ten. Because that window rolls, the classification can change mid-year, and it can change in either direction: forward as you accumulate years, backward as old periods fall out of the ten-year look-back.
Do partial days count?
Japan does not publish a part-day convention, and unlike Switzerland or Vietnam that silence is not a gap. Neither Japanese test is a tally of separate days, so there is nothing for a part-day rule to apply to. The one-year test asks how long you have kept a place of abode. The five-year test asks how much of the last decade you spent in Japan in aggregate. Record your periods in Japan with start and end dates rather than maintaining a running day counter, because periods are the unit both tests use.
What else can make you resident besides days?
A jusho, and it is the faster of the two routes in. Domicile makes you a Japanese resident without any waiting period at all, so someone who moves their base of life to Tokyo does not spend a year as a non-resident first. The one-year kyosho test exists for the cases where domicile is not clear cut.
The classification that follows is where the money sits. Residents, non-permanent residents and non-residents each face a different scope of Japanese tax: non-residents are taxed only on domestic-source income provided in the Income Tax Act, while the split between non-permanent and permanent resident determines how far Japan reaches into foreign-source income. That is why the five-year anniversary matters so much to people on long assignments, and why it is worth knowing the exact date rather than the approximate year.
A worked example with 2026 dates
The five-year anniversary lands on 1 April 2026
A French national arrived in Tokyo on 1 April 2021 for an assignment and has lived there continuously since, with no periods spent outside Japan.
| Measure | Dates | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Aggregate stay at 31 Mar 2026 | 1 Apr 2021 to 31 Mar 2026 | 1,826 days (365 + 365 + 366 + 365 + 365) |
| Five-year mark | 1,826 days, including 29 Feb 2024 | |
| Status to 31 Mar 2026 | Non-permanent resident | |
| Status from 1 Apr 2026 | Resident other than a non-permanent resident |
His aggregate stay within the preceding ten years reaches exactly five years on 31 March 2026, so from the following day he is no longer a non-permanent resident. Had he spent two months of 2023 working outside Japan, the aggregate would stand at 1,765 days on the same date and the change of status would arrive around two months later, because the test adds up time in Japan rather than measuring elapsed time since arrival.
How do I track my days for Japan?
Keep dated periods rather than an annual counter, and keep them for ten years. The number worth knowing is your aggregate time in Japan inside the preceding decade, and the date on which it will cross five years. Nothing about a calendar-year total answers a Japanese question, though your other countries will still want it.
Measure a rolling window
The free 183-day calculator counts days across any 12-month window. Japan's tests weigh a domicile and a multi-year aggregate far more than any annual figure, so use this for the other countries in your year.
A decade of dated stays
Staydays logs your days per country automatically and keeps the history, which is what a five-years-in-ten test needs you to produce.
Frequently asked questions
Does Japan have a 183-day rule?
No. Japan uses no annual day threshold for individuals. You are a non-resident for tax purposes unless you have a domicile in Japan or have had a residence there continuously for one year or more. The counting that does exist works on a ten-year scale, not a yearly one.
What is a non-permanent resident in Japan?
A resident who is not a Japanese national and whose aggregate stay in Japan is five years or less within the preceding ten years. Pass five years in ten and you become a resident other than a non-permanent resident, the category usually called a permanent resident for tax purposes. Japanese nationals who are resident are in that second category from the start.
How is the one-year residence test measured in Japan?
By duration, not by a tally of days. The test asks whether you have maintained a kyosho, a place of abode, in Japan for a period of one year or more. A jusho, meaning a domicile, works differently again and makes you resident without any waiting period. The two routes are alternatives, and either one is enough.
Does the five-year clock reset if I leave Japan?
It does not reset, it recalculates. The measure is your aggregate stay within the preceding ten years, so time outside Japan does not erase the years already accumulated, it simply stops adding to them. Because the ten-year window rolls forward, very old periods eventually drop out of the calculation on their own.
When does the Japanese tax year run?
1 January to 31 December. The National Tax Agency requires the final income tax return to be filed by 15 March of the following year, moving to the next business day where that date falls on a weekend or public holiday. Audits are handled by the local tax office covering your place of residence.
Do partial days count in Japan?
Japan does not publish a part-day convention, because neither of its residency tests is a tally of separate days. The one-year test measures how long you have kept a place of abode, and the five-year test measures an aggregate stay across a decade. Keep a dated log of your periods in Japan rather than a running day count.
Which authority decides Japanese tax residency?
The National Tax Agency, in Japanese the Kokuzeicho, working through the local tax office for your area. It classifies you as a resident, a non-permanent resident or a non-resident and sets the scope of income it taxes accordingly. Immigration status is separate: a work visa or permanent residency permit is not the same thing as tax residence.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and individual circumstances differ. Confirm details with official sources or a qualified advisor.
Last updated: 2026-08-05