Japan Withholding tax rates
Japan Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
The withholding taxes Japan levies on Japan-source payments to non-residents and foreign corporations - dividends, interest and royalties - each at its domestic statutory rate before any tax convention relief. The statutory 20% and 15% income-tax rates each carry the 2.1% Special Reconstruction Income Tax surtax, producing the operative 20.42% and 15.315% rates. Administered by the National Tax Agency.
Compare withholding tax rates across all 28 Asian countries →
| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2013-01-01 |
| Official source | NTA Tax Answer No.2884 非居住者等に対する源泉徴収・源泉徴収の税率 (Withholding on non-residents - withholding tax rates), law as of 1 April 2025 (令和7年4月1日現在法令等): 利子等 '15.315パーセント' (interest etc. 15.315 percent); 上場株式等の配当等 '15.315パーセント' (dividends on listed shares etc. 15.315 percent); その他の配当等 '20.42パーセント' (other dividends 20.42 percent); 貸付金の利子 '20.42パーセント' (loan interest 20.42 percent); 工業所有権、著作権等の使用料等 '20.42パーセント' (royalties for industrial property rights, copyrights etc. 20.42 percent). |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. Japan withholds at 20.42% on most dividends, loan interest and royalties, and at 15.315% on bond/deposit interest and listed-share dividends. A caller wanting a number must name which payment type; read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. A tax convention can reduce or eliminate any of them, and whether relief is available depends on the recipient's residence, beneficial ownership and the convention's own conditions (Japan also requires an Application Form for Income Tax Convention). We do NOT serve treaty rates: they are bilateral, run to many country pairs, and applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup. SURTAX MECHANICS: the base rates are 20% and 15% under the Income Tax Act (所得税法, withholding on non-residents per arts. 212-213). The Act on Special Measures for Securing Financial Resources for Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake imposes the Special Reconstruction Income Tax (復興特別所得税) at 2.1% OF THE INCOME TAX WITHHELD, for income arising from 1 January 2013 through 31 December 2037 - hence 20% x 1.021 = 20.42% and 15% x 1.021 = 15.315%. THE SURTAX SUNSETS AFTER 2037-12-31: absent new legislation, the rates revert to 20% and 15% for income arising from 1 January 2038. NTA notes that where a tax convention caps the rate at or below the domestic rate, the reconstruction surtax is not withheld on top ('租税条約の適用により…復興特別所得税を併せて源泉徴収する必要はありません').
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/jp/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/jp/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/jp/withholding-taxOther Japan series: policy interest rate · Statutory interest (法定利率) · 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) · Personal income tax (national, progressive bands) · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kuwait · Malaysia · Nepal · all 28