Two numbers, one job offer
Every job offer in Japan quotes 年収 (nenshu, "annual gross") — sometimes written as 額面 (gakumen, "face value"). It's the headline number in the ad, the figure your recruiter repeats, and the one you'll compare against offers back home. The problem is that 年収 is not what lands in your bank account. What actually shows up on payday is 手取り (tedori, "take-home") — gross minus a stack of mandatory insurance premiums and taxes that never touch your hands. Nobody is hiding anything from you; Japanese employers and job boards have simply always quoted gross, the same way many countries do. But if you've never worked here before, the gap between the number on the offer letter and the number in your account can be a genuine shock.
Why the gap exists
Between your 年収 and your 手取り sits a fixed stack of deductions, most of which are withheld automatically from every paycheck:
- 健康保険 (kenko hoken) — health insurance, roughly 5% of salary as the employee's half.
- 厚生年金 (kosei nenkin) — employee pension, 9.15% of salary.
- 雇用保険 (koyo hoken) — unemployment insurance, about 0.5%.
- 介護保険 (kaigo hoken) — long-term care insurance, roughly 0.81%, but only if you're between 40 and 64.
- 所得税 (shotokuzei) — national income tax, progressive from 5% to 45%, plus a 2.1% 復興特別所得税 (reconstruction surtax) on top of whatever bracket you land in.
- 住民税 (juminzei) — resident tax, roughly 10% of the prior year's income plus a flat ¥5,000, but only from your second year onward.
None of these are optional, and none of them are unique to foreign workers — every employee in Japan's shakai hoken (社会保険) system pays the same structure. For a full line-by-line walkthrough of where each deduction appears on your actual pay stub, see our guide to reading a Japanese payslip.
A rough rule of thumb
As a ballpark, take-home tends to land somewhere between 75% and 85% of gross for typical salaries — and that percentage falls as your income rises, because income tax is progressive. It also drops further starting in your second year, once resident tax kicks in. Roughly:
- ~¥4,000,000 gross → take-home around ~79% of that
- ~¥8,000,000 gross → take-home around ~76% of that
- Higher incomes push the take-home percentage lower still
These are rough bands, not a formula — your actual number depends on your specific insurance rates, dependents, municipality, and other factors. Use the calculator to get a real estimate for your situation rather than anchoring to these averages.
Rough gross-to-take-home reference (year two)
| 年収 (gross, annual) | Approx. take-home % | Rough take-home (annual) |
|---|---|---|
| ¥3,000,000 | ~80% | ~¥2,400,000 |
| ¥4,000,000 | ~79% | ~¥3,160,000 |
| ¥5,000,000 | ~78% | ~¥3,900,000 |
| ¥6,000,000 | ~77% | ~¥4,620,000 |
| ¥8,000,000 | ~76% | ~¥6,080,000 |
| ¥10,000,000+ | lower still | varies |
This table assumes year two, when resident tax is already factored in — which is the number you should actually budget against. More on that below.
Watch for the bonus wrinkle
年収 in a Japanese job offer almost always includes 賞与 (shoyo) or ボーナス (bonus), not just your monthly salary times twelve. Offers are frequently structured as "monthly salary × 12 months + N months of bonus," so a headline of ¥6,000,000 might actually be ¥375,000 a month × 16 (12 regular months plus 4 bonus months) — not a flat ¥500,000 a month. If you divide the advertised 年収 by 12 to estimate your monthly take-home, you'll overestimate your actual monthly cash flow, because a meaningful chunk of that annual figure only arrives once or twice a year at bonus time.
It's also worth knowing that bonuses aren't a tax-free windfall — they carry the same social insurance premiums and income tax as regular salary, so they don't escape the deductions above. For a deeper look at how Japanese bonus structures actually work and how they're taxed, see our guide to the bonus system in Japan.
Don't budget off your first paycheck. Your take-home in year one will look noticeably better than it will going forward, simply because 住民税 (resident tax) hasn't started yet — it's based on the prior year's income, and you had none in Japan before you arrived. That first-year bump is temporary, not a raise. See our guide to the year-two resident tax shock for what changes and when.
Building a realistic budget
The safest approach is to treat your first year's take-home as an illusion and plan around the lower, post-resident-tax number from the start. That way, when 住民税 arrives in year two, it's a line you already budgeted for rather than a surprise cut to your spending money. A few practical habits help:
- When comparing offers, always ask whether the quoted 年収 already includes bonus, and how many bonus months are assumed.
- Use a take-home calculator rather than a flat percentage guess whenever you're making a real decision, like signing a lease or timing a big purchase.
- Set aside part of your year-one "bonus" take-home rather than spending it all, since your real ongoing take-home will be lower once resident tax starts.
The rule-of-thumb percentages here are meant to give you a quick gut check, not a precise figure — actual insurance rates, dependents, prefecture, and company-specific plans all shift the real number. For questions on how specific situations (dependents, multiple jobs, mid-year moves) affect your take-home, check our FAQ page, and run your own numbers through the calculator before you sign anything.
Calculate your take-home →