The short version

Who pays Japan’s gift tax (and on what)

Japan’s gift tax is charged on the person who receives the gift. Inheritance Tax Act Article 1-4(1) makes the recipient the taxpayer. The giver is not entirely free of it: Article 34(4) makes the giver jointly liable for the gift tax attributable to the gifted property, up to that property’s value.

How much Japan actually taxes depends on which category of recipient you fall into, under Article 2-2 of the same Act:

• Worldwide scope (Art. 2-2(1)). Recipients under Article 1-4(1)(i) or (ii) are taxed on the entire value of what they received, wherever in the world it is located.
• Japan-only scope (Art. 2-2(2)). Recipients under (iii) or (iv) instead are taxed only on property located in Japan.

The relevant category for most foreign residents is (i): anyone with an address in Japan when the gift is made. Within that category, the Act carves out a narrower rule for a temporary resident: broadly, someone on a Table 1 status of residence (the work statuses, and equally Dependent or Student) whose domicile (the base of their life, not a registered address) has been in Japan for 10 years or less within the past 15 years. That narrower rule applies only where the giver is a foreign donor or a non-resident donor, defined by their own visa and residence history; if the giver is neither, a temporary resident is taxed on everything received (Art. 1-4(1)(i)(b)). Whether that exception actually reaches you turns on both your visa history and the giver’s, and specifically on whether the relevant status of residence sits in Table 1 or Table 2 of the immigration law (Art. 1-3(3)(i), applied through Art. 1-4(3)). We cover that full test, with the visa tables, in our guide to the temporary resident test, and why the giver’s status matters too.

If another country taxes the same gift

If part of what you received is property located outside Japan, and that country’s own law charged something equivalent to gift tax on it, Article 21-8 credits that foreign tax against your Japanese gift tax on the same property. The credit is capped at your Japanese gift tax multiplied by the share that the foreign property’s value represents of your total taxable gifts for the year. It reaches tax charged on property actually located outside Japan; the statute’s wording does not resolve whether it also reaches a foreign gift tax charged on the giver rather than the recipient.

The same worldwide-versus-Japan-only architecture also governs what happens if the transfer happens on death instead of during life. See our guide to Japan inheritance and gift tax, where the same scope rules apply when someone dies.

The ¥1,100,000 exemption, and how the tax is actually calculated

The basic deduction most guides quote is written twice in the law, at two different amounts. Inheritance Tax Act Article 21-5 sets it at ¥600,000. But Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Article 70-2-4(1) overrides that figure for every gift made on or after 1 January 2001, replacing it with ¥1,100,000. That is the number that actually applies. Both are a deduction from the taxable value of what you received, calculated per recipient, per calendar year (1 January to 31 December). It does not multiply with the number of people who gave you gifts.

Above the deduction, Japan uses two different rate tables, depending on who gave the gift and how old you were:

• General rates (Art. 21-7). Apply by default, to gifts from anyone.
• Special rates (Art. 70-2-5(1)). A lower table that applies only where the gift comes from a lineal ascendant (a parent or grandparent) and the recipient was 18 or older on 1 January of the year of the gift.

Both tables work the same way: the taxable amount is sliced into bands, each band is taxed at its own rate, and the results are added together. Neither statute contains a “quick deduction” column. That shortcut, common in published tax tables, is a calculation convenience, not something the law itself provides.

General rate: Inheritance Tax Act, Art. 21-7

Special rate: gift from a lineal ascendant, recipient 18+ on 1 Jan (Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation, Art. 70-2-5(1))

If you received both special-rate and general-rate gifts in the same calendar year, Article 70-2-5(3) prescribes its own method: the whole taxable amount for the year (after the basic deduction and any spouse deduction) is run through each table, and each result is weighted by the share of special-rate and of general-rate gifts in the year's total. The gifts are not sliced through the two tables separately, and the two totals above cannot simply be picked between.

Filing and payment: 1 February to 15 March (and the trap if you leave first)

A gift tax return is due between 1 February and 15 March of the year after the gift (Inheritance Tax Act, Art. 28(1)), and payment is due by that same date (Art. 33). For a gift made in 2026, that is 1 February to 15 March 2027. Both fall on a Monday, so neither date shifts under the general rule that a deadline landing on a weekend or public holiday moves to the next business day (Act on General Rules for National Taxes, Art. 10(2)).

You only need to file if there is actual tax due for the year under the ordinary calendar-year calculation, or if you have property subject to settlement-at-inheritance taxation once the relevant deduction is applied. A gift within the ¥1,100,000 basic deduction, with nothing else to report, generally needs no return. Several of the reliefs described below are different: claiming the housing-funds relief, the spouse deduction, or settlement-at-inheritance taxation requires filing a return with the prescribed attachments, even where the tax comes to zero.

Where you file also depends on your situation: recipients with a Japan address file at that address (Art. 62(1)); recipients who have already left, or who never had a Japan address, must nominate a filing location and notify the tax office, or the National Tax Agency will designate one for them (Art. 62(2)). Leaving Japan raises exactly the same tax-agent question that applies under the exit tax on securities. Leaving Japan has its own filing trap, and the two can land in the same departure year.

Gifts Japan does not tax at all

Two categories of receipts sit outside the gift tax base entirely, under Article 21-3(1) of the Inheritance Tax Act.

• Support between family members (Art. 21-3(1)(ii)). Money received from a person under a statutory duty of support, meaning a spouse or a relative within the scope of Civil Code Article 877 (Art. 1-2(i)), is excluded where it is used for ordinary living or education costs, to the extent the amount is normally regarded as necessary. All three conditions have to hold together; the statute does not set a figure for what counts as normally necessary, so we do not either.
• Gifts from a company (Art. 21-3(1)(i)). Property received from a corporation, rather than an individual, is outside gift tax altogether. It is taxed as income instead.

Do not confuse this with the separate question of whether money sent to you from abroad is caught by the rule that applies to non-permanent residents’ foreign-source income. That is an income tax question, tested under different provisions, and remittances are also tested under a separate income tax rule. A living-expenses gift from a parent can be exempt from gift tax under Article 21-3(1)(ii) and still raise a remittance question on the income tax side, depending on your residence status.

Similarly, if what you received came from your employer or another company (a bonus, an equity award, or a stock grant), it is taxed as income, not as a gift, and a transfer from a company is income, not a gift covers how that is calculated.

Money from parents to buy a home: the window closes 31 December 2026

This relief only works for an unlimited taxpayer (you must be an unlimited taxpayer, check §1 first), since the recipient category tested in Article 1-4(1)(i) or (ii) is a condition of the relief itself, not just of the general worldwide-scope rule.

Article 70-2 of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation excludes money received from a lineal ascendant and used to acquire a home, within a fixed statutory window and subject to conditions:

• Window. Gifts received from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2026, as the Act is written today. We have checked the versions of this Act scheduled to take effect through 2030, and as of 23 September 2026 no extension has been enacted, so the window closes on that date under the law as it currently stands.
• Recipient. An unlimited taxpayer under Article 1-4(1)(i) or (ii), 18 or older on 1 January of the year of the gift, with total income for that year of ¥20,000,000 or less (¥10,000,000 or less if the home’s floor area is under 50㎡, Cabinet Order Art. 40-4-2(1)).
• The home itself. At least half the floor area must be for residential use, and the total floor area must be between 40㎡ and 240㎡. This is the point that catches people planning to help family buy property back home: the home must be located in Japan (Cabinet Order Art. 40-4-2(2)). Money used toward a home outside Japan does not qualify.
• Timing. The funds must be fully applied to acquiring or building the home by 15 March of the year after the gift, with the recipient living there by that date, or clearly expected to move in shortly after.

The relief applies only if your gift tax return under Inheritance Tax Act Article 28 (the return due between 1 February and 15 March of the year after the gift) states that you are applying it and attaches the calculation statement and the other documents prescribed by Ministry of Finance ordinance (Art. 70-2(14)). That return has to be filed on time even if the exclusion brings your tax to zero; a late return is not an Article 28 return. The only exception is narrow: under Art. 70-2(15), where an Article 28 return was filed without the statement or documents, the tax office may still apply the relief if it accepts there was an unavoidable reason and the missing items are then submitted.

Education and marriage/childcare lump sums: one window has already closed

Two further one-time reliefs let a lineal ascendant fund a lump sum through a bank, trust company, or securities firm rather than an ordinary cash gift. Both run on fixed statutory windows, and (unlike the ¥1,100,000 annual exemption, which has no end date) one of the two has already closed to new contracts.

Education lump sum (Art. 70-2-2(1))

This relief ran from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2026, a window that, as of today, has already ended. No new education-fund management contract can be opened under this relief. While it was open: the exclusion was up to ¥15,000,000, the recipient had to be under 30 at the time the contract was signed, the recipient’s income for the prior year could not exceed ¥10,000,000, the gift had to come from a lineal ascendant, and the funds had to be held at a domestic financial institution. The Act specifically requires an office located in Japan. Existing contracts already in place continue to run under the terms in force when they were signed; this is not a relief you can newly enter into now.

Marriage / childcare lump sum (Art. 70-2-3(1))

This relief has been running since 1 April 2015 and, as the Act is written today, remains open until 31 March 2027. The recipient must be between 18 and 49 at the time the contract is signed, the exclusion is up to ¥10,000,000, the recipient’s income for the prior year cannot exceed ¥10,000,000, the gift must come from a lineal ascendant, and (the same condition as the education relief) the funds must be held at a financial institution with an office in Japan.

This section is limited to whether each relief is currently open, its headline exclusion, and its basic conditions. The rules on how unused balances are taxed on payout, or when the recipient reaches a certain age, are detailed enough to deserve their own treatment rather than a summary here.

The spouse deduction (and why it usually will not help an expat couple)

Inheritance Tax Act Article 21-6(1) allows a deduction of up to ¥20,000,000 from the taxable value of a gift between spouses married 20 years or more, where the gift is either residential real estate located in Japan, or cash used to acquire residential real estate located in Japan. Where cash is used, the recipient must acquire the property and move in by 15 March of the following year, and be expected to keep living there. The deduction can be used only once between the same two spouses. A couple who has already claimed it cannot claim it again on a later gift.

Claiming it requires filing a return (an original, late, or amended return) with a statement of the deduction and documentation confirming it has not been used before between the same spouses (Art. 21-6(2)). This is, again, a filing requirement even where the resulting tax is zero.

The practical catch for many expat couples: the property has to be in Japan. Cash or real estate directed at a home outside Japan does not qualify, whatever the length of the marriage. The 20-year marriage test itself is delegated to Cabinet Order (Art. 21-6(4)), and how a marriage registered or contracted overseas is counted needs individual confirmation rather than an assumption either way.

Where the basic deduction and the spouse deduction both apply to the same gift, they stack: the gift tax rate table applies to the taxable value after both the spouse deduction of up to ¥20,000,000 and the ¥1,100,000 basic deduction have been subtracted (Inheritance Tax Act Art. 21-7, which applies the rates to the value 'after the deductions under the preceding two articles', i.e. Arts. 21-5 and 21-6, with the basic deduction set at ¥1,100,000 by Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 70-2-4). Where the recipient also receives special-rate gifts from a lineal ascendant in the same year, SMCT Art. 70-2-5(3)(i)-(ii) applies the same after-both-deductions value in the split calculation.

Settlement-at-inheritance taxation: a one-way door

Instead of the ordinary calendar-year gift tax, a recipient can elect settlement-at-inheritance taxation (sōzoku-ji seisan kazei) under Inheritance Tax Act Article 21-9(1). To use it: the recipient must be the donor’s presumptive heir and lineal descendant, 18 or older on 1 January of the year of the gift, and the donor must be 60 or older on that same date. A parallel rule (Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation, Art. 70-2-6(1)) extends the same election to a grandchild who is 18 or older, where the grandparent-donor is 60 or older. This is an extension of who can use the election, and it is separate from the annual deduction described below. Neither rule sets a nationality or residence requirement. The test is age and family relationship only, though whether the gift itself falls inside Japan’s tax base still depends on the recipient and donor categories described in §1.

Once elected, this taxation runs on its own numbers:

• Annual basic deduction: ¥1,100,000 (Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation, Art. 70-3-2(1), for gifts on or after 1 January 2024, overriding the ¥600,000 in Inheritance Tax Act Art. 21-11-2(1)).
• Special deduction: ¥25,000,000 cumulative, per specified donor, over the life of the election (Art. 21-12(1)(i)), claimed only on a return filed by the statutory deadline (Art. 21-12(2)).
• Rate above both deductions: a flat 20% (Art. 21-13), regardless of amount.

At the donor's death, property received under this election is added to the recipient's inheritance-tax base at its value on the gift date, less the annual ¥1,100,000 settlement-at-inheritance basic deduction, so amounts covered by that deduction are not added back (Inheritance Tax Act Art. 21-15(1); Art. 21-16(1), (3); Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation Art. 70-3-2(2)). Gift tax paid on that property (before the foreign tax credit, and excluding delinquency tax and penalty taxes) is then deducted from the inheritance tax (Art. 21-15(3); Art. 21-16(4)). See what happens to these gifts when the donor dies for how that reconciliation actually works.

We calculate what you actually owe, and file it on time

Tax return preparation in Japan is restricted to licensed tax accountants (zeirishi). At our office, the work (from the initial calculation through filing) is led in English by our representative tax accountant (zeirishi), Junya Yamaguchi, a Japanese certified public accountant who previously handled international engagements at EY, Deloitte and PwC China, in Japan and in China.

Our work centres on industries where expatriate executives are common (multinational manufacturers, international hotel groups, resources and infrastructure, and global BPO), supporting professionals at major foreign-owned companies through direct individual engagements, with no vendor registration required on the employer’s side.

• Work out which rate table applies. General or special rate, and the bracket-by-bracket calculation across whichever applies to your gift.
• Confirm which reliefs you can actually use: housing funds, the spouse deduction, or settlement-at-inheritance taxation. Then prepare the return attachments each one requires.
• Track the departure trap. If you are leaving Japan before 15 March, the tax agent notification and the return follow whichever date actually applies to you.
• Model the settlement-at-inheritance election before you file it. It cannot be withdrawn once made, so it needs to be right the first time.

Pricing

A gift tax return, including the calculation of whichever exemption or relief you qualify for, starts at ¥160,000 (excl. consumption tax) under our usual return tiers. Work that requires classifying your own or the donor’s residence and visa history first is scoped once we understand the transfer. See our guide to inheritance and gift tax for what that classification involves.

What we need from you

• What you received, from whom, and when. The amount or asset, the giver’s relationship to you, and the date of the gift.
• Your residence and visa history, if the giver is not a Japan-resident Japanese national. This is needed to confirm the scope of taxation under §1.
• Whether a relief applies. Documents for the housing-funds relief, the spouse deduction, or settlement-at-inheritance taxation, if you plan to claim one.
• Your departure plans, if you are leaving Japan before 15 March of the filing year.

Common questions

Who pays gift tax in Japan: the person giving or the person receiving?

The person receiving. Article 1-4(1) of the Inheritance Tax Act imposes the obligation on the recipient. Whether Japan reaches only Japan-located property or your worldwide receipts depends on your residence and visa category, and on the giver's own status (Article 2-2(1) and (2)). We cover that test on our inheritance and gift tax page.

How much can I receive tax-free in a year?

¥1,100,000 per recipient per calendar year. The figure comes from Article 70-2-4(1) of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation, which overrides the ¥600,000 written in Article 21-5 of the Inheritance Tax Act. Separately, money from a person with a statutory duty of support, used for ordinary living or education costs, is excluded altogether under Article 21-3(1)(ii). The statute describes this as an amount normally regarded as necessary, without setting a figure.

What is the gift tax rate in Japan?

From 10% on the first ¥2,000,000 to 55% on the top slice. There are two tables: the general one in Article 21-7 of the Inheritance Tax Act, and a more favourable one in Article 70-2-5(1) of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation for gifts from a lineal ascendant to a recipient who was 18 or older on 1 January of that year. The tax is the sum of each slice at its own rate.

When is the gift tax return due, and what if I leave Japan before then?

Between 1 February and 15 March of the year after the gift (Article 28(1), Inheritance Tax Act), and payment is due by the same date (Article 33). If you cease to have a domicile and a residence in Japan between 1 January and 15 March without having filed a notification of a tax agent under Article 117(2) of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes, the deadline moves forward to the day you cease to have them. For a 2026 gift the normal dates are 1 February to 15 March 2027.

Can my parents abroad send me money to buy a home in Japan tax-free?

Only within the special housing-funds rule, and only if you are an unlimited taxpayer. Article 70-2 of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation excludes up to ¥10,000,000 (energy-efficient and similar housing) or ¥5,000,000 (other housing) for gifts received between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2026, from a lineal ascendant, where the recipient was 18 or older on 1 January, meets an income cap of ¥20,000,000 for that year, and the home is in Japan with a floor area between 40㎡ and 240㎡ (Cabinet Order Article 40-4-2(2)). A return with the prescribed attachments is required even if the tax comes to zero. Under the law as enacted today, the window closes on 31 December 2026.

What you actually receive

• A written questionnaire. After your first message we send a short set of questions: residence and visa history for each person, the jurisdictions involved, what is held where, and the dates that matter. Nothing is quoted before we have the facts.
• One call, in English, if the facts need it. Used to confirm the timeline and the assumptions, not to sell.
• Written advice, signed by a licensed tax accountant. You receive the analysis in writing, signed by the licensed tax accountant (zeirishi) who handled your matter. A tax return or other follow-up work is included only where our written proposal says so; otherwise it is quoted separately.

Fees are fixed and quoted in writing before any work begins, and they follow the scope once the facts are known.

Where this page sits