Calculator
Japan property tax calculator, and what buying actually costs on top of the price
Every figure below is built from a published rate: the Ministry of Construction notice that caps a broker's commission, the Stamp Tax Act and the Registration and Licence Tax Act as modified by the Special Taxation Measures Act, and the Local Tax Act. Where a number cannot be known without a document you do not have yet, the calculator says so instead of inventing one.
Rates checked against primary sources on 31 July 2026.
Estimated one-off costs
¥1,728,800
4.32% of the purchase price, on top of the price itself.
This is an estimate, not a quotation. It covers the items listed below and nothing else.
Read these before using the number
- For an apartment, the floor area that counts is the one on the register, which for a unit in a building is measured to the inside face of the walls (Real Property Registration Rules Art.115). That is typically a few per cent smaller than the area in the sales brochure, which is usually measured to the centre of the walls. Near 40 m² or 50 m² this decides whether a reduction applies at all.
- The acquisition-tax reductions shown are conditional on filing a claim with the prefecture. Ask the prefectural tax office for its form and its deadline as soon as you complete.
- The judicial scrivener's fee is not included. Ask for a written quote and enter it above.
Fixed by the contract price
This is a ceiling per client, not a fixed price. It is negotiable, and it is charged only if an agency brokers the deal.
Reduced rate, for contracts drawn up on or before 31 March 2027. Duty is charged on each original. Contracts are usually drawn in duplicate with each side stamping its own original, so this is your share. If only one original is made and you keep a copy, the parties often split a single duty — check which arrangement your contract uses.
Base rate. The reduction for transfer contracts does not extend to loan agreements.
Charged on the assessed value
1.5% reduced rate for a transfer by sale, in force to 31 March 2029 (Special Taxation Measures Act Art.72). It does not depend on the building or on who lives there.
Reduced rate of 0.3% applied. It needs a certificate from the municipality, registration within one year of acquisition, a registered floor area of 50 m² or more, and that you live in the home yourself. It runs to 31 March 2027.
Charged on the loan principal, not on the assessed value. Reduced rate of 0.1% applied, on the same conditions as the building above (50 m² or more, owner-occupied, registered within one year).
A credit of about ¥336,000 has been applied for land under a qualifying home. Both the housing deduction and the land credit apply, in the words of the Act, only where the buyer files a claim with the prefecture (Local Tax Act Art.73-14(4) and Art.73-24(5)). A prefecture may grant them without the filing if it is satisfied the conditions are met (Art.73-14(5), Art.73-24(6)), but do not rely on that: ask the prefecture what form it wants and by when. There are also time limits linking the land and building acquisitions; confirm them.
A deduction of ¥12,000,000 from the taxable base has been applied, which takes the base below the exemption threshold, so this calculator shows nothing due on the building. The threshold is tested after the housing deduction, not against the assessed value before it: Article 73-14 makes the deduction part of computing the taxable base that Article 73-15-2 measures. The two prefectures we checked publish the same treatment. Ibaraki Prefecture states that where a special rule for the taxable base applies, the threshold is judged on the price after that deduction, and gives a worked example in which a deduction leaves a base of ¥100,000 — above zero, but under the threshold, so no tax is charged. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government defines the amount that is to be the taxable base as the amount after the reductions have been applied. We have not checked all 47 prefectures, and your prefectural tax office is the body that assesses this, so confirm your own case with them. Both the housing deduction and the land credit apply, in the words of the Act, only where the buyer files a claim with the prefecture (Local Tax Act Art.73-14(4) and Art.73-24(5)). A prefecture may grant them without the filing if it is satisfied the conditions are met (Art.73-14(5), Art.73-24(6)), but do not rely on that: ask the prefecture what form it wants and by when.
Annual tax after you own it
A rough figure for a full year of fixed asset tax and city planning tax, using the same assessed values.
- Fixed asset tax — land
- ¥39,200
- Fixed asset tax — building
- ¥134,400
- City planning tax — land
- ¥16,800
- City planning tax — building
- ¥28,800
- Total per year
- ¥219,200
- The real bill is usually lower than this in the first years, because the taxable base for land is phased in rather than jumping to the full figure. We do not model that phase-in.
- A home newly built between 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2031 has half its building fixed asset tax knocked off for three years — five years for a fire-resistant building of three storeys or more built between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2031 (Local Tax Act supplementary Article 15-6). It is not applied here, because the details entered do not meet it.
- 1.4% and 0.3% are the standard and maximum rates in the Local Tax Act. A municipality may set a different rate. Check the rate where you are buying.
Not in the total
These are real costs that vary too much to estimate honestly. Ask for each of them in writing before you sign.
- Judicial scrivener's fee, unless you entered a quote above.
- Bank arrangement fees, guarantee fees and group credit life insurance.
- Fire and earthquake insurance.
- Fixed asset tax already paid by the seller for this year, which buyers customarily reimburse pro rata at closing. This is a contract term, not a tax; check the start date used.
- For an apartment: the settlement of the management fee and the repair reserve fund.
- Consumption tax on the building, if the seller is a business. Land is never subject to consumption tax.
- Moving, renovation and furniture.
Where each number comes from
- Broker's commission
- Ministry of Construction Notice No. 1552 of 1970, Section 2, as last amended by MLIT Notice No. 949 of 21 June 2024: 5.5% of the part of the price up to ¥2,000,000, 4.4% of the part between ¥2,000,000 and ¥4,000,000, and 3.3% of the part above ¥4,000,000, as a ceiling per client. Those percentages already include consumption tax. Section 7 covers a "low-priced vacant home etc.", which the notice defines by price alone as land or a building at ¥8,000,000 or less: there the agency may exceed the tiered amount, having regard to the costs the mediation requires, and may not take more than ¥330,000 from that client.
- Stamp duty
- Special Taxation Measures Act Article 91 for the reduced rate on a transfer contract, which runs to 31 March 2027, and the Stamp Tax Act, Appended Table 1 Category 1, for the base table used on a loan agreement and for the exemption below ¥10,000. Duty is charged per original document.
- Registration tax
- Special Taxation Measures Act Articles 72 (land at 1.5% instead of 2.0% until 31 March 2029), 72-2, 73 and 75 (the housing and mortgage reductions, to 31 March 2027), with the conditions in its Enforcement Order Articles 41, 42 and 42-2-3 — an individual who lives in the home, registration within a year, and a registered floor area of 50 m² or more with no upper limit. Rounding follows the General Act on National Taxes Articles 118 and 119 and the Registration and Licence Tax Act Articles 15 and 19: base down to ¥1,000, tax down to ¥100, minimum ¥1,000.
- Real estate acquisition tax
- Local Tax Act Articles 73-14 (the housing deduction and the requirement to file for it), 73-15-2 (exemption thresholds) and 73-24 (the land credit), with supplementary Articles 11-2 (3% instead of 4%) and 11-5 (the taxable base for building land halved), both to 31 March 2027. The floor-area range of 40 m² to 240 m² is in the Enforcement Order, Articles 37-16 to 37-18. It is a different test from the 50 m² one used for registration tax. The 40 m² figure applies to acquisitions from 1 April 2026; before that date Articles 37-16 and 37-17 read 50 m² (40 m² for a unit that is let out) and Article 37-18(1), which is the pre-owned one, read a flat 50 m². Supplementary Article 3 of Cabinet Order No. 83 of 2026 leaves earlier acquisitions on the old text. That same article keeps 50 m² until 31 March 2031 for a home inside a designated urban renaissance emergency development area within a Tokyo special ward, unless the unit is let out — but read its paragraphs separately, because that carve-back is written into paragraph 1 (newly built home), paragraph 2 (a unit in a new block) and paragraph 4 (the land credit that goes with a new home), and not into paragraph 3, which governs pre-owned homes. A pre-owned flat in central Tokyo uses the plain 40 m² test. The deduction for a home built before April 1997 is fixed by the Act at the amount in force when it was built, and the statutes database only publishes versions from April 2017, so those older bands come from an official prefectural table and are flagged as such in the results.
- Annual tax
- Local Tax Act Articles 350 (1.4% standard rate), 702-4 (0.3% ceiling for city planning tax), 349-3-2 and 702-3 (the residential land reductions), 351 (the small-value thresholds, and the proviso that lets a municipality charge below them by by-law), 702-8(1) (city planning tax is assessed and collected following fixed asset tax, which is why a property under the Article 351 threshold pays neither) and supplementary Article 15-6 (half the building's fixed asset tax for three years, or five for a fire-resistant building of three storeys or more). The floor-area conditions for that halving are in the Enforcement Order, supplementary Article 12, and they are a separate test from the acquisition-tax one even though both currently read 40 to 240 m²: Article 12 makes it 30 m² for a rented unit in registered serviced housing for the elderly and 50 m² for a home inside a designated urban renaissance emergency development area within a Tokyo special ward. From 1 April 2027 the Article 351 threshold for buildings rises from ¥200,000 to ¥300,000 (Act No. 2 of 2026; its supplementary Article 14(2) applies the new Article 351 from FY2027); the calculator uses the figure in force now.
What this tool will not do
It will not tell you whether a particular property is a good buy, whether a contract is safe to sign, or what your personal tax bill will be. Those answers are regulated in Japan and we are not licensed to give them. Use the number here to sanity-check the cost sheet your agent hands you, then take the sheet to a licensed real estate agency (宅地建物取引業者, takken gyosha) and its qualified agent (宅地建物取引士, takken-shi), a judicial scrivener (司法書士, shiho shoshi) and a tax accountant (税理士, zeirishi).
Read the full guide to property tax in Japan for foreign buyers →