Three Blocks, One 給与明細
Every Japanese 給与明細 (kyuyo meisai, "payslip") is built from the same three blocks, whether it arrives as a paper slip or a PDF in your company's HR portal: 支給 (shikyu, "payments"), 控除 (kojo, "deductions"), and 勤怠 (kintai, "attendance"). Once you can find these three sections, the rest of the document stops looking like a wall of kanji and starts looking like simple arithmetic: payments minus deductions equals what actually lands in your bank account. If you're still fuzzy on how your quoted salary relates to that final number, our companion piece on annual salary (年収) versus take-home pay (手取り) covers the bigger picture — this article zooms into the slip itself.
An Annotated Example
Layouts vary by company and payroll vendor, but the line items below appear on almost every slip in roughly this order. Use this as a map the first time you open your own 給与明細.
| Section | Japanese Term | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 支給 | 基本給 | Base pay before any allowances or overtime — the number closest to your contracted salary. |
| 支給 | 通勤手当 | Commuting allowance, usually a reimbursement of your train/bus pass and often non-taxable up to a set monthly limit. |
| 支給 | 残業手当 | Overtime pay, calculated from your logged overtime hours in the 勤怠 block. |
| 支給 | 総支給額 | Gross pay — the sum of everything above. Also called 額面 ("face value") in casual conversation. |
| 控除 | 健康保険 | Health insurance premium, your half of the shared employer/employee cost. |
| 控除 | 厚生年金 | Employees' pension premium, also split with your employer. |
| 控除 | 雇用保険 | Employment insurance, funding unemployment benefits. |
| 控除 | 介護保険 | Long-term care insurance, only appears if you are age 40–64. |
| 控除 | 所得税 | National income tax withheld this month, adjusted later at 年末調整. |
| 控除 | 住民税 | Resident tax — absent in your first year, then deducted monthly from year two onward. |
| 勤怠 | 出勤日数 / 残業時間 | Days worked and overtime hours logged, which feed directly into your 支給 figures. |
| 合計 | 差引支給額 | Net pay (手取り) — 総支給額 minus every line in 控除. This is what's actually deposited. |
支給: What You're Paid
The 支給 block lists every source of income for the month. 基本給 is your negotiated base salary, and on top of it you'll typically see 各種手当 — various allowances such as 通勤手当 (commuting costs), a residential allowance if your company subsidizes rent, a family or dependent allowance, and 残業手当 for any overtime hours recorded in the 勤怠 section. Add all of these together and you get 総支給額, the gross figure — often what people mean when they quote a salary, but not what you'll actually receive.
控除: The Five Deductions That Shrink Your Pay
控除 is where gross pay becomes net pay, and it's the section most newcomers find confusing. Five recurring items do most of the work:
- 健康保険 (health insurance): Administered through 協会けんぽ for most small and mid-sized employers, the total premium rate is set per prefecture and split evenly between you and your employer. In Tokyo for FY2026 the combined rate is 9.85%, so your share works out to roughly 4.925% of your standardized monthly salary.
- 厚生年金 (employees' pension): A fixed nationwide rate of 18.3% total, with your employee share at 9.15%.
- 雇用保険 (employment insurance): 0.5% of your pay for general businesses in FY2026, funding unemployment and related benefits.
- 介護保険 (long-term care insurance): Only deducted if you're between 40 and 64 years old, at roughly 0.81%.
- 所得税 (income tax): A progressive national tax withheld monthly based on estimated annual income, then reconciled at year-end through 年末調整 (or a personal 確定申告 if you leave partway through the year).
Starting April 2026, a new small levy called 子ども・子育て支援金 (roughly 0.115% employee share) is also collected alongside your health insurance premium to fund child-support programs — expect to see it as its own line or folded into the 健康保険 row depending on your payroll provider.
健康保険 and 厚生年金 aren't calculated on your exact monthly salary. They're based on a banded figure called 標準報酬月額 (standard monthly remuneration), which rounds your pay into official salary brackets. That means the precise yen amount on your slip may differ slightly from a straight percentage of your paycheck — this is normal, not an error. For the full mechanics of how each program works and who's covered, see our guide to Japan's social insurance system.
住民税: The Deduction That Isn't There Yet
The sixth deduction, 住民税 (resident tax), is unusual because it depends on where you lived and what you earned the prior year. The rate is roughly 10% of prior-year income plus a flat charge of about ¥5,000 annually, and it's billed starting in June of the following year.
If you're new to Japan, your first several payslips will not show a 住民税 line at all. Because the tax is based on the previous calendar year's income, and you had no Japan-sourced income before you arrived, there's nothing to bill yet. The catch is that this deduction appears — often as a real shock — starting the June after your first full calendar year of work, once your municipality has processed your prior-year earnings. Read what happens to your take-home pay in year two so the drop doesn't blindside you.
勤怠: Attendance Behind the Numbers
The 勤怠 block usually sits off to the side and records 出勤日数 (days worked), 有給消化日数 (paid leave used), and 残業時間 (overtime hours). These figures aren't deductions — they're the inputs that generate your 残業手当 and confirm your attendance record matches what payroll processed. If your 総支給額 looks different from last month, checking this block first often explains why.
差引支給額: The Number That Matters
At the bottom of the slip is 差引支給額 — your net pay, also called 手取り in everyday speech. It's simply 総支給額 minus every line item in 控除. This is the amount that hits your bank account, and it's typically 15–25% lower than your gross pay once social insurance and taxes are accounted for, though the exact gap depends on your income level, age, and prefecture. If you want to model how a raise or a job offer's stated salary would translate into real take-home pay, our payslip and take-home pay calculator walks through the same line items in this article using your own numbers. For deeper answers on edge cases — bonuses, multiple jobs, or mid-year moves — check the FAQ.
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