Japan Statutory interest (法定利率)
Japan Statutory interest (法定利率) is 3 percent, in force since 1 Apr 2020. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
Japan's unified statutory interest under Civil Code art. 404: 3% per annum, reviewed every three years against a benchmark ratio, held at 3% for the period 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029.
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| Current value | 3 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2020-04-01 |
| Official source | 民法第404条 (Civil Code art. 404, as amended by Act No. 44 of 2017, in force 2020-04-01); Ministry of Justice notice for the third period: 第3期の基準割合「年０．４％」(benchmark ratio 0.4%/yr), 法定利率は年３％のまま (statutory rate remains 3%/yr) — 令和7年法務省告示第73号 (MOJ Notice No. 73 of 2025) |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
One unified rate for civil AND commercial obligations — the old Commercial Code 6% (art. 514) was abolished on 1 April 2020. The rate is floating-with-review: baseline 3% from 2020-04-01, recomputed every three years against the 基準割合 (benchmark ratio: five-year average of banks' short-term lending rates, announced by MOJ notice), moving only if the benchmark has shifted by at least 1 percentage point since the last change, in whole-point steps. Both the 2023 and 2026 reviews held 3% — MOJ Notice No. 73 of 2025 fixed the third-period benchmark at 0.4%, keeping 3% through 31 March 2029. NEXT REVIEW: outcome announced ~6 months before 1 April 2029 — revalidate then, not continuously. COMPUTATION TRAP: the applicable rate LOCKS PER CLAIM at the time the obligation first bears interest (art. 404(1)) — claims that started accruing before 1 April 2020 carry the old 5% (civil) or 6% (commercial) for their lifetime.
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/jp/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/jp/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/jp/statutory-interestOther Japan series: policy interest rate · Consumption tax (standard rate) · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (lowest prefectural regional minimum wage) · Public holidays · Consumer price inflation (CPI, all items, year-on-year) · Corporate income tax (national corporation tax, standard rate) · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax (national, progressive bands) · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kuwait · Malaysia · Nepal · all 28