Japan Money Checklist 2026: 23 Things Foreigners Should Check

Last updated: 5 November 2026

This checklist lists the steps and rights foreigners lose money on in Japan, in the order to do them. Your ticks are saved only on this phone or computer. No sign-up needed.

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When you first arrive (first month)

• Register your address within 14 days
  Health insurance, bank and phone steps all start from here.
• Declare your income for health insurance, even if it is zero
  In Tokyo’s 23 wards, a person under 40 living alone with no income can see the flat part fall from 65,200 yen to 19,560 yen a year. That is 45,640 yen less.
• Student who cannot pay the pension? Apply for the student payment special provision
  17,920 yen a month from age 20. It is a deferral, not an exemption. Do not simply leave it unpaid.
• Check the NHK exemption (students)
  1,100 yen a month (terrestrial contract). An exemption starts from the month NHK accepts your application.

While you are at school

• Ask your school about the Monbukagakusho Honors Scholarship
  30,000 yen a month at a language school, 48,000 yen at a university or similar. No repayment.
• Work out whether 28 hours a week covers your costs
  At Tokyo’s minimum wage, 28 hours a week is 143,360 yen a month. Students in Tokyo spend an average of 199,000 yen a month, including tuition.

If you work

• Get your working conditions in writing (part-time too)
  If the job differs from the paper, you can end the contract right away.
• Check your overtime pay
  At 1,200 yen an hour, time beyond 8 hours a day or 40 a week pays 1,500 yen an hour, and 1,800 yen after 10 p.m.
• Use your paid leave
  10 days after six months with 80% attendance. Even one shift a week gives you 1 day.
• Hand in your year-end adjustment forms
  Your employer settles and returns overpaid income tax in December.
• Check whether family back home can be your dependents
  A 380,000 yen deduction per person. People aged 30 to 69 are generally not covered.
• If you left a job mid-year with no year-end adjustment, file a refund return
  Any overpaid tax comes back. You can file at any time for 5 years from 1 January of the next year.
• Check furusato nozei (only if you pay resident tax)
  Within your limit, you pay just 2,000 yen a year yourself.
• Renew your visa online
  You need a My Number card. Up to 9,450 yen cheaper than at the counter (only a permit of 3 months or less costs 330 yen more).

Housing

• Avoid moving in March
  A solo move costs about 140,000 yen in March, and 66,000 to 74,000 yen from May.
• Do not sign a rent increase straight away
  A landlord cannot decide an increase alone.
• Check a move-out bill before you pay
  Normal wear is the landlord’s cost.

Illness and injury

• Know your monthly medical cost limit
  If you are under 70 with an income of about 3.7 to 7.7 million yen, 1 million yen of insured treatment in a month comes to 92,940 yen.
• Claim the deduction if medical costs pass 100,000 yen a year
  If your income is under 2 million yen, the line is 5% of your income.
• Count your public cover before buying life insurance
  It depends on whether family in Japan rely on your income.

Do not get scammed

• Not sure? Call #9110 or 188
  #9110 is the police advice line. 188 is for shopping and contract problems.
• Remember the 8-day cooling-off period for door-to-door and phone sales
  Day 1 is the day you receive the document. Online shopping and purchases in a store are not covered.

When you leave Japan

• Follow the leaving-Japan steps in order
  Without a moving-out notice, you cannot get the pension refund.

Once you have done these, it helps to know one place to call when something goes wrong. See the free help desks for foreigners

WHO WROTE THIS

mori

Japanese. I read the ministries’ own notices, orders and Q&As in the original, and I start from what my Nepalese and Sri Lankan friends in Japan actually ran into. I do not write about what I have not checked or been told.

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