Country guide · Japan
Moving to Japan: cost of living, salaries, taxes, visas
Highly Skilled Professional points category accelerates permanent residency; Digital Nomad Visa launched 2024; Tokyo cost rising vs. yen weakness.
Japan opened gradually over the past decade. The Highly Skilled Professional category uses a points system that can lead to permanent residency in 1-3 years for senior tech, research, and management profiles. A formal Digital Nomad Visa launched in 2024.
Tokyo dominates the country's relocator inflow, with Osaka and Fukuoka as smaller alternatives. Yen weakness in recent years has made Tokyo notably more affordable in USD/EUR terms than its historical reputation suggests, though housing in central wards remains the dominant cost driver.
At a glance
Japan relocation profile
Mundevo coverage in Japan
Cost-of-living detail pages for each Japan city in the catalog.
Tax and visa landscape
Headline tax model + entry-point visa overview for relocators.
- Effective income tax: 12.0%
- Social security (employee): 15.0%
- Total payroll deduction: 27.0%
- VAT: 10.0%
- Currency: JPY
Effective rates assume a single salaried filer at country median wage. Special regimes (e.g. expat-favoring schemes) are not applied here — see the visa guide for those.
Visa categories, residency routes, and tax-regime context for relocators are detailed in the dedicated visa guide.
Japan visa guide →Salary bands at Tokyo — by role
Illustrative gross-salary bands for 6 senior IC roles in Tokyo. Derived from NYC anchor × Japan pay-tier multiplier. Cross-check Levels.fyi, Glassdoor before negotiating.
| Role | P25 | P50 | P75 | NYC anchor (P50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | ¥13,533,333 | ¥16,800,000 | ¥21,466,667 | $180,000 |
| Product manager | ¥14,000,000 | ¥18,200,000 | ¥24,266,667 | $195,000 |
| UX / product designer | ¥9,411,111 | ¥12,405,556 | ¥16,683,333 | $145,000 |
| Marketing manager | ¥8,866,667 | ¥12,133,333 | ¥16,333,333 | $130,000 |
| Data scientist | ¥12,600,000 | ¥16,333,333 | ¥21,466,667 | $175,000 |
| Finance analyst | ¥11,977,778 | ¥16,877,778 | ¥23,955,556 | $155,000 |
Top relocation corridors
Closest peers by cost-of-living index — the moves most commonly considered alongside Japan.