Living in Japan.

Key money, a deposit and an agent's fee can add up to several months' rent before you have a Japanese account, and the yen's swings make timing matter.

A wire from home adds its own cost on top of whatever the yen is doing that week. Compare what each service pays in yen, and our guide to money in Japan goes deeper.

Yes, and for working-age people it is more open than most of Asia, as long as you fit a route. Nearly all of them need a sponsor, a business or points on the board. We cover the detail in our Japan visa guide; the usual ways in are:

• Work visa, sponsored by an employer, for engineers, specialists, teachers and the like. The most common route.
• Highly Skilled Professional, a points-based visa that fast-tracks permanent residency to three years, or one year at the top tier.
• Business Manager visa, to run a company here. Since October 2025 it needs JPY 30 million in capital (up from 5 million), an employee, and business-level Japanese.
• Digital nomad visa, a six-month, non-renewable stay for remote workers earning at least JPY 10 million a year, from eligible countries. It does not lead to residence.
• Spouse of a Japanese national, work-unrestricted and the fastest family route toward permanent residency.

Japan does not offer a retirement or passive-income visa, and there is no golden-visa route to buy your way to residency.

To retire here you have to qualify another way: a spouse visa, running a real business on a Business Manager visa (now JPY 30 million in capital), the skilled-professional track, or eventually permanent residency after years on one of those. Buying a house, which foreigners can do freely, comes with no right to live in the country.

Most people start on a work visa tied to a specific job and employer, then build toward permanent residency. The standard wait is ten years, but the Highly Skilled Professional points system cuts it to three years, or one at the top tier; the spouse of a Japanese citizen can qualify after a year of residence, once the marriage has lasted three years (five years of marriage and three in Japan for applications from 1 April 2027). PR frees you from renewals and from being tied to a job, though you keep it with a re-entry permit, and long absences abroad put it at risk.

Citizenship is a separate decision, and a bigger one. From April 2026 it needs ten years of residence, the same as permanent residency and double the old five, plus Japanese-language ability and a clean record. And Japan does not allow dual citizenship, so becoming a citizen means giving up the passport you hold now. That last condition, more than the years, is why most otherwise-committed residents stop at permanent residency and never take the final step.

Japan's income tax has a feature that matters enormously in the early years. For your first five years as a foreigner you count as a non-permanent resident, and Japan taxes only your Japan-source income plus any foreign income you actually bring into the country. Leave your overseas earnings overseas and they stay untaxed, which is why people watch their remittances closely at the start. That window closes after five years of the last ten: from then on you are a permanent tax resident, taxed on your worldwide income.

The rates themselves are high. National income tax is progressive up to 45%, and on top sit a local inhabitant tax of about 10% and a 2.1% reconstruction surtax, so the combined top rate lands near 55%. Investment income is taxed more gently and separately, at about 20.315% on listed shares, dividends and interest. The glaring exception is crypto, taxed as miscellaneous income at the full progressive rates, so up to roughly 55%; a move to a flat 20% has been proposed but is not yet law.

Two taxes catch wealthy movers off guard. Japan's inheritance tax is among the world's highest, up to 55%, and once you hold permanent residency or a spouse visa, or pass ten years here, it can reach your worldwide estate. People on work visas get a carve-out on their foreign assets.

There is also an exit tax. Leave with financial assets of JPY 100 million or more, after more than five of the last ten years as a resident, and you owe tax on your unrealized gains, though time on a work visa is excluded from that count. If you have real assets, have this conversation with an adviser before you move, not after.

Buying is the easy part in Japan; renting is the gauntlet. Foreigners can buy freehold with no strings, yet most people rent, at least at first, and the way in costs more and asks more of you than almost anywhere else on this list.

The move-in bill is the first shock. You typically pay key money (礼金), a non-refundable gift to the landlord of one to two months, on top of a refundable deposit (敷金) of one to two months. Add an agent fee of about a month, fire insurance and a lock-change fee, and the total lands at four to six months' rent before you carry a box through the door. You will also almost certainly need a guarantor company, since most foreigners have no personal guarantor; it charges 50 to 100% of a month's rent to start, plus a small yearly renewal.

Some landlords simply will not rent to foreigners. It is common enough to shape a search, and the way around it is to filter for listings marked foreigner-friendly (外国人OK) and to use bilingual agencies, which pre-screen for owners who accept foreign tenants and set up the guarantor company for you. Agencies like GTN, Able and MiniMini handle a lot of foreign renters. For a cheaper, lower-hassle start, public UR rentals charge no key money, no agent fee and no guarantor, and share-house operators such as Oakhouse and Sakura House rent furnished rooms by the month.

Two things surprise newcomers. Apartments are small, often a single room (a 1R or 1K) measured in tatami mats, so a Tokyo one-bedroom that would feel cramped at home is normal here. And pets are frequently barred outright, so if you have a cat or dog, the pet-friendly filter narrows the market sharply before you start.

Buying, by contrast, is one of the few in Asia a foreigner can do outright. You can buy land and buildings freehold, with the same rights as a Japanese citizen: no residency, visa, approval or minimum spend, and it is genuine ownership. Budget two lots of cost. At purchase, taxes and agent fees come to roughly 6 to 8% of the price. Then you pay an annual fixed-asset tax of about 1.4% of the assessed value for as long as you hold it. Financing is the catch: most Japanese banks want permanent residency, but a handful (SMBC Prestia, SBI Shinsei, Suruga, Tokyo Star) lend to non-PR residents with a 20 to 30% deposit and a higher rate, and buyers purchasing from abroad usually pay cash. From April 2026 foreign buyers also file a short post-purchase report, paperwork rather than a restriction. This is why Niseko (ski chalets and strong seasonal rental yields) and central Tokyo (stable values and steady rent) draw most of the foreign money.

The big portals are in Japanese, so use a translation tool or a bilingual agent:

• Property portals. Suumo, Homes and At Home list most of the market, almost all in Japanese. Filter for 外国人OK if you search yourself.
• Foreigner-friendly agencies. Bilingual agencies (see the names above) set up the guarantor and steer you to willing landlords, and are worth the fee for a first apartment.
• Lower-cost routes. Public UR rentals (no key money, agent fee or guarantor) and share houses are the cheapest ways in while you settle and build a local record.

Bringing your life over is straightforward. Used personal effects come in duty- and tax-free as part of a move, if they arrive within about six months. A car is legal to import but rarely worth it once you count compliance and inspection, so most people buy locally. The yen is fully convertible, with no currency controls beyond declaring large sums of cash at the border.

In Japan the international-school bill is a choice, not a requirement. Public elementary and junior high school is free to foreign residents, textbooks included, and you enroll through the local board of education. The catch is language. Lessons run entirely in Japanese, and how much help a child gets depends on the municipality.

International schools in Tokyo charge about JPY 2.5 million to JPY 3.5 million a year for primary. Aoba-Japan is the cheapest of the well-known ones. The British School in Tokyo, Tokyo International School, the American School in Japan and Nishimachi all sit near the top. Most add a compulsory annual levy on top of tuition, and a one-time entry fee that can pass JPY 1.5 million.

Preschool is the surprise. Nursery and kindergarten are free for ages three to five at approved facilities, for every resident regardless of nationality or income. Below three, free places go only to households exempt from municipal residents tax. Meals, transport and uniforms are charged either way.

For someone who will learn the language and put in the years, Japan is close to the best place you could move to: safe (our is Japan safe? guide has the detail), excellent on healthcare, with freehold property in Tokyo, Osaka or the snow around Niseko, and five years before it taxes your foreign income.

Just know that the finish line moved. As of April 2026, permanent residency and citizenship both take ten years, and citizenship still means handing back the passport you hold now.