Japan Payroll Calendar: Every Deadline and Who Owns It

A Japan payroll year runs on fixed dates, and most of them have nothing to do with the monthly gross-to-net that a global payroll template is built for: monthly tax and premium remittances, a report for every bonus, the June resident tax changeover, the July 10 filings, year-end adjustment in the December payroll, and the annual statutory reports due January 31.

For a multinational's Japan KK or GK, the real question is who owns each of those dates: HQ, the global payroll vendor, the Japan entity, or the licensed labour and social security attorney (社会保険労務士, shakai hoken romushi, usually called a sharoushi) working with a provider such as AQ Partners. This calendar runs from January to December. For each event it gives the deadline, the owner, and the step a global payroll template usually misses. It ends with a checklist you can forward to the group payroll team.

Key Takeaways

• Monthly remittances: income tax and resident tax are remitted by the 10th of the following month, and social insurance premiums by the end of the following month.
• Bonus runs: withholding uses the NTA bonus rate table keyed to the prior month's salary, and every bonus needs a report to the pension office within 5 days.
• June and July: new resident tax amounts start with June pay, and the standard remuneration report and labour insurance renewal are both due July 10.
• 2026 to 2027 changes: the December 2026 year-end adjustment uses higher deductions, and from January 2027 a defence special income tax is withheld and the January 31 withholding slip filing is simplified.
• Ownership: the Japan entity is always the legal filer, and a global vendor usually does not file social insurance or municipal forms, so each date needs a named owner.

The four owners of Japan payroll

Japan payroll has four owners, and the deadlines that get missed usually sit at the handoffs between them. The legal employer, withholding agent and filer is always the Japan entity. An employer can file these forms itself; when an outside party prepares and files them for a fee, that work is reserved for a licensed sharoushi under Article 27 of the Sharoushi Act (社会保険労務士法第27条, Shakai Hoken Romushi-ho dai 27-jo).

• HQ (group payroll, HR or global mobility, regional finance). Owns pay decisions: salary changes, bonus amounts and dates, new hires and leavers, and equity or allowance policy. HQ is also the usual source of the data that Japan filings depend on.
• The global payroll vendor. Runs the gross-to-net calculation and produces payslips and the bank file. Whether it applies Japan-specific tables and rules correctly depends on how the Japan country template was configured.
• The Japan entity. Remits tax and premiums from its own bank account, receives notices from the tax office, municipalities and the pension office, and signs or authorises filings. In a small subsidiary this is often the country manager plus one administrator.
• The sharoushi, coordinated by AQ. Prepares and files social and labour insurance forms (bonus reports, the July reset, mid-year changes, the labour insurance renewal) and checks the vendor's output against Japanese rules. AQ also prepares year-end adjustment and the January statutory reports, and acts as the single point of contact for HQ.

The obligation map: Japanese payroll law against the group payroll program

Each recurring Japan payroll obligation comes from one of five statutes. The table below maps each one to the group payroll process it belongs to and to its owner. The governing laws are the Income Tax Act (所得税法, Shotokuzei-ho), the Local Tax Act (地方税法, Chihozei-ho), the Health Insurance Act (健康保険法, Kenko Hoken-ho), the Employees' Pension Insurance Act (厚生年金保険法, Kosei Nenkin Hoken-ho), and the Act on the Collection of Labour Insurance Premiums (労働保険の保険料の徴収等に関する法律, Rodo Hoken no Hokenryo no Choshu-to ni Kansuru Horitsu).

Obligation	Japanese law	Threshold or deadline	Group payroll program it maps to	Owner
Withholding on monthly salary (源泉徴収, gensen choshu) and remittance	Income Tax Act	Every salaried employee; remit by the 10th of the following month, or twice a year if fewer than 10 people are on payroll	Monthly gross-to-net and tax remittance	Vendor calculates; Japan entity pays
Withholding on bonuses	Income Tax Act	Every bonus; rate from the NTA bonus table, set by the prior month's salary	Bonus and incentive cycle	Vendor calculates; sharoushi or AQ checks
Bonus payment report (賞与支払届, shoyo shiharai todoke)	Health Insurance Act; Employees' Pension Insurance Act	Within 5 days of payment; caps of JPY 5.73 million a year (health) and JPY 1.5 million a month (pension)	Benefits and social security	Sharoushi, coordinated by AQ
Social insurance premiums	Health Insurance Act; Employees' Pension Insurance Act	Prior month's premium deducted from pay; paid by the end of the following month	Social security contributions	Vendor deducts; Japan entity pays
Mid-year change of standard monthly remuneration (月額変更届, getsugaku henko todoke)	Health Insurance Act; Employees' Pension Insurance Act	Fixed pay change producing a 2-grade difference over 3 months; applies from the 4th month	Compensation change process	HQ notifies; sharoushi files
Annual standard remuneration report (算定基礎届, santei kiso todoke)	Health Insurance Act; Employees' Pension Insurance Act	Everyone insured on July 1; April to June pay; due July 10	Annual benefits reset	Sharoushi, coordinated by AQ
Labour insurance annual renewal (年度更新, nendo koshin)	Labour Insurance Premium Collection Act	June 1 to July 10; three instalments if the estimated premium is JPY 400,000 or more	Annual insurance renewal and accrual	Sharoushi files; Japan entity pays
Resident tax special collection (住民税特別徴収, juminzei tokubetsu choshu)	Local Tax Act	Amounts set by each municipality; deducted June to May; remit by the 10th	Monthly deductions and remittance	Vendor deducts; Japan entity pays
Resident tax leaver notice (給与所得者異動届出書, kyuyo shotokusha ido todokedesho)	Local Tax Act	By the 10th of the month after the change; lump-sum collection for January to April leavers if the final salary or retirement payment covers the remaining balance (Art. 321-5)	Offboarding	HQ notifies; AQ prepares
Year-end adjustment (年末調整, nenmatsu chosei)	Income Tax Act	Employees who filed the dependants declaration and earn JPY 20 million or less	Annual tax reconciliation	Japan entity collects forms; AQ computes; vendor pays out
Withholding slips (源泉徴収票, gensen choshu hyo), salary payment reports and statutory report summary	Income Tax Act; Local Tax Act	January 31	Annual tax reporting	AQ prepares; Japan entity files

Every month: tax by the 10th, premiums by month-end

The global template usually calculates the monthly deductions correctly but leaves the timing and the inputs to someone else.

Income tax withholding, due the 10th

Income tax withheld from salaries must be paid by the 10th of the month after the pay month, according to the National Tax Agency's guidance on withholding payment deadlines (No. 2505). An employer with fewer than 10 people regularly on payroll can apply for a special rule. Under it, tax withheld from January to June is due July 10, and tax withheld from July to December is due January 20 of the next year. A weekend or holiday deadline moves to the next business day.

The monthly tax table has two columns, and templates often get the choice wrong. The 甲 (ko) column applies only if the employee has submitted the dependants declaration (扶養控除等申告書, fuyo kojo-to shinkokusho) to this employer. Everyone else is taxed on the 乙 (otsu) column, which withholds more. Vendors often default every new hire to one column. Also, if the entity uses the semi-annual rule, the vendor's remittance report needs to roll six months into one payment slip, not produce twelve.

Our pillar on withholding tax (gensen choshu) in Japan covers rates and non-salary withholding in more detail.

Social insurance premiums, due at the end of the following month

Health and pension insurance premiums for a month are due by the end of the next month. The employer may deduct the prior month's premium from the current month's salary, so the April premium comes out of May pay, according to the Japan Pension Service page on premium payment. Premiums are based on each employee's standard monthly remuneration (標準報酬月額, hyojun hoshu getsugaku), a graded amount fixed in advance. They are not a percentage of that month's actual pay.

So the vendor needs a maintained table of each employee's standard monthly remuneration, and the one-month lag handled correctly for joiners and leavers. Our guide to standard monthly remuneration in Japan explains the July reset and mid-year changes.

Mid-year changes to standard monthly remuneration

When fixed pay changes (a raise, a pay cut, or a new fixed allowance), the standard monthly remuneration may need to be revised before the annual July reset. Three conditions must all be met: fixed pay changed; the average over the three months starting with the change differs from the current standard by 2 or more grades; and each month has at least 17 paid days. The new amount applies from the 4th month, according to the Japan Pension Service guidance on mid-year revision.

The usual failure: HQ approves a pay rise in the global HR system, and the vendor applies it to gross pay. Nobody tells the sharoushi, so no change is filed and premiums stay at the old grade. The fix is a standing rule that every Japan compensation change is copied to the sharoushi or AQ in the month it takes effect.

The Japan payroll calendar from January to December

The calendar below lists every recurring payroll event in month order, with its owner and the step a global template usually misses. Dates assume a calendar-year payroll, which is how Japanese income tax and resident tax work whatever the entity's fiscal year.

Month	Event and deadline	Owner	What the global template usually misses
January	Remit December withholding, including the year-end adjustment result, by January 10 (January 20 under the semi-annual rule). Give withholding slips to employees and file salary payment reports and the statutory report summary by January 31. Labour insurance third instalment due January 31. From January 2027, use the new withholding tables.	Japan entity pays; AQ prepares reports	The vendor keeps the previous year's tax tables; salary payment reports go to the wrong municipality because January 1 addresses were not refreshed
February	Collect any remaining resident tax as a lump sum from employees leaving between January and April.	HQ notifies leavers; vendor deducts	Leaver resident tax is treated as optional when it is mandatory for these months
March	New health insurance and nursing care rates apply from the March premium, deducted from April pay.	Vendor updates rates; sharoushi checks	Rates are switched on the pay date rather than the premium month, so one month is wrong
April	New employment insurance rate from April 1. The annual cap on health insurance bonus premiums resets. April pay is the first of the three months used for the July reset.	Vendor; sharoushi	The bonus cap counter is reset on January 1 instead of April 1
May	Municipalities send resident tax notices for each employee by May 31.	Japan entity receives; AQ loads	Notices arrive by post at the registered office and are not passed to the vendor
June	New resident tax amounts start with June pay. Labour insurance renewal opens June 1. If the entity pays a summer bonus: bonus withholding and a bonus report within 5 days.	Vendor deducts; sharoushi files	Last year's resident tax amount runs on into June
July	July 10: standard remuneration report, labour insurance renewal and first instalment, and January to June withholding under the semi-annual rule.	Sharoushi files; Japan entity pays	April to June pay data is not exported in the format the sharoushi needs
August	Load each employee's new standard monthly remuneration from the July report into the vendor system before the September premium.	Sharoushi or AQ; vendor	The old grades keep running because no one owns the master-data update
September	New standard monthly remuneration applies from the September premium.	Vendor	The new grade is applied to September pay instead of October pay
October	September premium at the new grade is deducted from October pay. Labour insurance second instalment due October 31. Year-end adjustment data requests go to employees.	Vendor; AQ; Japan entity	Year-end adjustment is not in the vendor's scope at all
November	Collect year-end adjustment declarations and insurance certificates.	Japan entity collects; AQ reviews	HQ assumes employees file their own returns, as they would in many other countries
December	Run year-end adjustment in the final pay of the year and settle refunds or shortfalls. If the entity pays a winter bonus: bonus withholding and a bonus report within 5 days.	AQ computes; vendor pays out	The December run closes before year-end adjustment results are ready

Bonus runs: withholding, premiums and the 5-day report

A Japanese bonus is not taxed at a flat supplemental rate, and social insurance is charged on a separate standard bonus amount. Each step catches out templates built for other countries.

Bonus withholding and the prior-month salary rule

According to the NTA guidance on withholding from bonuses (No. 2523), the employer first takes the previous month's salary after social insurance. It finds that amount, against the employee's number of dependants, in the bonus rate table (賞与に対する源泉徴収税額の算出率の表, shoyo ni taisuru gensen choshu zeigaku no sanshutsuritsu no hyo). It then applies the rate to the bonus after social insurance. In the NTA's 2026 example, a prior-month salary of JPY 285,454 after social insurance and three dependants give a rate of 2.042%. Applied to a bonus of JPY 389,558 after social insurance, that withholds JPY 7,954 (fractions of a yen are dropped, per the NTA).

Two exceptions apply. If the bonus after social insurance is more than 10 times the prior month's salary, the bonus is divided by 6 (or by 12 if the bonus period exceeds six months). The result is added to the prior month's salary and run through the monthly table, and the difference is multiplied back up. The same divide-by-6 method applies if there was no salary in the prior month, which is common with a new hire's sign-on bonus. Employees who have not submitted the dependants declaration are taxed on the otsu column.

In a global template, the bonus run is often processed before, or in parallel with, that month's salary run, so the vendor has no confirmed "prior month" figure. Large one-off payments such as a retention bonus or a commission true-up trigger the 10-times rule, and the vendor does not apply it. Our post on how bonus withholding tax is calculated in Japan works through the method.

Social insurance on bonuses and the bonus payment report

The employer reports each bonus to the Japan Pension Service within 5 days of the payment date. The report sets the standard bonus amount (標準賞与額, hyojun shoyo gaku), which is the gross bonus rounded down to the nearest JPY 1,000. Premiums are charged on that amount, capped at JPY 5.73 million in total per fiscal year (April to March) for health insurance and JPY 1.5 million per month for pension, according to the Japan Pension Service page on the bonus payment report. Bonuses paid in the same month are added together before the pension cap is applied.

A common gap: the vendor calculates the premium on the bonus but does not file the report, and nobody tells the sharoushi a bonus was paid. Because the health insurance cap runs April to March, a counter that resets on January 1 over-deducts on a March bonus (forgetting December) and under-deducts on a June bonus (still counting January to March).

Whether a global bonus or commission plan is enforceable and how it should be paid is a separate question. Our post on global bonus, commission and equity plans for Japan employees covers it.

March to July: rate changes, resident tax and the July 10 filings

March and April: rate changes that land on the premium month

Spring rate changes apply by premium month, so a rate that changes "from March" first shows on April payslips.

• Health insurance and nursing care. For employers in the Kyokai Kenpo scheme in Tokyo, the health insurance rate for fiscal 2026 is 9.85% and the nursing care rate (employees aged 40 to 64) is 1.62%, both from the March 2026 premium paid in April, according to the Kyokai Kenpo Tokyo branch. Rates differ by prefecture.
• Employment insurance. For general businesses the fiscal 2026 rate is 1.35%: 0.50% from the employee and 0.85% from the employer, for the fiscal year from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027, according to the MHLW Yamanashi Labour Bureau notice for fiscal 2026.
• Child-care support levy. A new levy of 0.23%, split equally between employer and employee, is collected with health insurance from the April 2026 premium, which is paid in May, according to the health insurance federation's guidance on the child-care support levy. It is scheduled to rise in stages to about 0.4% over the following two fiscal years.

The vendor updates the rate tables; the sharoushi or AQ checks the first payroll after each change, rather than relying on a vendor release note.

June: the resident tax changeover

Resident tax (juminzei) is based on the previous year's income and is charged by the municipality where the employee lived on January 1. The employer does not calculate it. Each municipality sends the employer a notice of special collection amounts by May 31. The employer deducts those amounts from pay from June to the following May and remits them by the 10th of the following month, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's guide to special collection.

That one-year lag explains two things HQ often queries. A new graduate pays no resident tax in their first year. A secondee arriving from abroad pays none until the June after their first January 1 in Japan. An employee who leaves Japan during the year still owes the tax charged on the previous year's income.

Resident tax when an employee leaves

The employer files the leaver notice with the municipality by the 10th of the month after the change, according to Shibuya City's list of special collection notices. For departures between January and April, the employer must collect the remaining tax in a lump sum if the final salary or retirement payment covers the remaining balance, under Article 321-5 of the Local Tax Act (地方税法第321条の5, Chihozei-ho dai 321-jo no 5). For departures from June to December, a lump sum is taken only if the employee asks, according to Minato City's resident tax guidance. Otherwise the employee pays the balance directly.

If nobody loads the new notices before the June run, last year's amounts carry on. Load each employee's amounts exactly as the notice gives them, month by month. For leavers, the global offboarding checklist rarely includes the municipal notice.

Our guide to resident tax special collection in Japan covers the June changeover and leavers in more detail.

Labour insurance annual renewal, due July 10

Labour insurance (workers' accident compensation plus employment insurance) is paid once a year in advance. Each year the employer settles the previous fiscal year's premium against actual wages and pays an estimated premium for the current year. The fiscal 2026 renewal period ran from June 1 to July 10, 2026, according to the MHLW Chiba Labour Bureau notice. If the estimated premium is JPY 400,000 or more (JPY 200,000 where only one of the two insurances applies), it can be paid in three instalments due July 10, October 31 and January 31, according to the MHLW Yamanashi Labour Bureau guidance on instalments.

The renewal needs total wages paid from April to March, while group payroll reports usually run January to December. Ask the vendor for an April to March wage report every May. Finance should also accrue the October and January instalments so they do not surprise the Japan entity's cash plan.

The July standard remuneration report

Every employer reports the April, May and June pay of everyone insured on July 1, by July 10. The average sets each employee's standard monthly remuneration from September to the following August, according to the Japan Pension Service guidance on the annual determination. Months with fewer than 17 paid days are excluded. Employees who joined on or after June 1, left by June 30, or are already the subject of a July mid-year change are not included.

The reset is the single largest annual change to Japan net pay, and it lands in October payslips. If an April pay rise triggers a mid-year change, that employee is filed under the July mid-year change and left out of the annual report, so the sharoushi needs the list of April changes before preparing the July filing.

For new joiners, enrolment itself is a separate filing with its own deadline. Our guide to enrolling foreign employees in Japan's social insurance walks through it.

October to December: year-end adjustment

Year-end adjustment is the employer's annual recomputation of each employee's income tax with their deductions, settled against monthly withholding in the final payroll of the year. It is a statutory duty of the Japan entity, not an optional employee benefit.

Who is included

Year-end adjustment covers employees who have submitted the dependants declaration to the employer by the date of the adjustment. It excludes anyone whose salary for the year exceeds JPY 20 million, according to the NTA guidance on who is subject to year-end adjustment (No. 2665). People who left during the year are generally not adjusted, with limited exceptions such as leavers who become non-resident. For a foreign-owned subsidiary, the exclusions matter. A country manager paid more than JPY 20 million is not adjusted by the employer, but the employer still issues and files a statutory withholding slip.

What changes for December 2026

The fiscal 2026 tax reform changes the December 2026 calculation, according to the NTA's 2026 year-end adjustment guide, section on changes from last year:

• The statutory basic deduction rises to JPY 620,000 (from JPY 580,000), with temporary reform additions for 2026 and 2027 that take it up to JPY 1.04 million for total income of JPY 4.89 million or less.
• The statutory minimum employment income deduction rises to JPY 740,000 (from JPY 650,000).
• The statutory income limit for a dependant or a spouse in the same household rises to total income of JPY 620,000 (salary income of JPY 1.36 million or less). It applies to salary paid on or after December 1, 2026.
• Monthly withholding through November 2026 does not change. The higher deductions are applied only in the December adjustment, so more employees than usual will receive a refund.

The data HQ and the vendor must provide

Year-end adjustment needs a full year of Japan taxable pay and withholding for each employee. That includes taxable benefits HQ pays outside the Japan payroll, such as housing paid by the parent or equity income the group treats as Japan employment income. It also needs the withholding slip from a previous employer for anyone hired during the year. The declarations and insurance premium certificates come from employees and are collected by the Japan entity. My Number details stay with the entity and its sharoushi.

Most global vendors do not run year-end adjustment, or run it only for employees whose data is entirely inside their system. The December pay calendar is often fixed early to fit the group close, so the adjustment results are not ready for the last run. The practical fix is to agree the December cut-off in September and send the employee data requests in October.

For the mechanics of the adjustment alongside social insurance, see our guide to Japan payroll compliance, social insurance and nenmatsu chosei. For what HQ and the vendor must provide, see year-end adjustment (nenmatsu chosei) for a foreign-owned subsidiary.

January 31: the statutory payroll reports

By January 31, the Japan entity must give every employee a withholding slip for the previous year. It must also send salary payment reports (給与支払報告書, kyuyo shiharai hokokusho) to the municipality where each employee lived on January 1, and file the statutory report summary (法定調書合計表, hotei chosho gokeihyo) with the tax office. Leavers must receive their slip within one month of leaving, according to the NTA guidance on withholding slips (No. 7411).

What changes from January 2027

For withholding slips due on or after January 1, 2027, filing the salary payment report with the municipality counts as filing the withholding slip with the tax office. The employer no longer prepares a separate tax office copy. The municipal filing covers every employee except mid-year leavers paid JPY 300,000 or less in the year. Under the old law, only slips above set thresholds went to the tax office, for example over JPY 1.5 million for officers and over JPY 5 million for most adjusted employees (NTA No. 7411).

The e-filing threshold also falls. For each type of statutory report, e-Tax (or another approved electronic method) is required when 30 or more forms of that type were due two years earlier, down from 100 for filings up to December 31, 2026, according to the NTA guidance on statutory reports (No. 7400).

A global vendor may produce a payslip-style annual statement, but not the Japanese forms in the format municipalities and the tax office accept. The statutory report summary also covers non-payroll payments, such as fees to individual professionals, which sit in accounts payable.

Our post on the gensen choshu hyo and the January 31 payroll filings covers each form in more detail.

New withholding tables from January 2027

From income arising on or after January 1, 2027, employers withhold a new defence special income tax of 1% of the income tax amount. The reconstruction special income tax falls from 2.1% to 1.1%. The combined surtax stays at 2.1%, so the calculation method does not change, according to the NTA overview of withholding for the defence and reconstruction special income taxes. Payroll from January 2027 must run on the 2027 withholding tables, which the NTA published on August 31, 2026 and which also reflect the higher deductions.

Running Japan through a global payroll vendor: gaps and budget

A global vendor is a reasonable choice for the monthly calculation in Japan. The gaps are predictable: inputs that arrive at the Japan entity and never reach the vendor; social insurance, labour insurance and municipal filings that are usually not in a global vendor's Japan service description; timing rules that differ from the group calendar; and payments the entity must make from its own account. A one-page RACI that assigns each item in the calendar above to a named person usually closes these gaps.

Our post on running Japan payroll through a global payroll vendor sets out the gaps and a RACI. If you are moving Japan payroll from one provider to another, the handover month is when items fall through. Our post on transitioning Japan payroll and accounting between providers covers sequencing.

Budgeting the Japan payroll year

The year has four kinds of payroll work: twelve monthly runs, one run per bonus, the year-end adjustment, and the July 10 and January 31 annual filings. Ask any provider to quote each separately so the bonus and December workload is visible, and budget the labour insurance instalments and spring rate changes as statutory cost lines. Our post on budgeting a Japan subsidiary in yen covers the statutory cost lines HQ forgets.

For annual cost figures at 5, 20 and 50 staff, see what Japan payroll costs to run for a year.

Forwardable checklist for the group payroll team

The calendar table above is the dated list. Copy these recurring actions next to it in the group payroll calendar and assign an owner to each line.

• Every month: remittances on time; every Japan pay change sent to the sharoushi in the month it takes effect.
• Every bonus: prior month's salary final before the bonus run; NTA bonus table and 10-times rule applied; bonus report filed; health insurance cap tracked April to March.
• Every leaver: resident tax notice filed and withholding slip issued.
• After each rate change: first payroll checked, including the child-care support levy.
• Before the June run: resident tax notices with the vendor, with the June instalment checked separately.
• Before the December run: cut-off agreed with the vendor and prior-employer slips collected for mid-year joiners.

For the non-payroll filings a new subsidiary faces in the same year, see our first-year HQ calendar for a Japan subsidiary.

Working with AQ Partners. Our Tokyo team provides monthly payroll coordination with a licensed sharoushi, bonus pay runs, year-end adjustment, the annual payroll statutory reports, social and labour insurance enrolment, and payroll software setup and transition for foreign-owned subsidiaries in Japan, working alongside your global payroll vendor. Book a consultation to review your Japan payroll calendar and who owns each date.