Why Your First Paycheck in Japan Is Usually Bigger

Last updated: 6 October 2026 · figures for the 2026 tax year (令和8年分)

Your first Japanese payslip is usually the largest you will see for a while. Health insurance and the pension are normally taken a month behind, so the first pay often has neither. Resident tax is taken a year behind, so it has none of that either. What it does have is employment insurance, and slightly more income tax than the months after it. On ¥400,000 a month in Tokyo the first payslip comes to ¥382,350, and the second to ¥329,071.

Insurance is collected a month behind

The Japan Pension Service explains how employers pay: the premium for a month is due at the end of the following month, and the employer deducts your share from the current month’s salary based on the previous month’s grade — its own example is that the contribution for April comes out of the salary paid in May. Health insurance is collected the same way, on the same notice. So if you start in April and are paid at the end of April, that first pay carries no health insurance and no pension; April’s premiums come out of May’s pay.

The rule itself is in the Health Insurance Act (健康保険法 第167条) and the Employees’ Pension Insurance Act (厚生年金保険法 第84条), in the same words: when it pays you a salary, the employer may deduct your premium on the previous month’s standard monthly remuneration — and, when you leave, the previous month’s and that month’s. It is worded as something the employer may do, so payroll practice can differ; the next paragraph covers a first payslip that does show them.

You are not uninsured in the meantime. You are covered from the day you join, and the premium for that first month is charged in full; your grade (標準報酬月額) is set from the pay agreed when you join and runs until the next reset. The rule lets the employer take the previous month’s premium; if your first payslip does show health insurance and the pension, ask payroll which month the deduction is for.

If you start partway through a month and the first pay is only for the days you worked, the grade is still set from the pay agreed when you join, not from that short first pay — the agency calls it the decision on joining (資格取得時の決定). The premium for that first month is the full monthly amount for the grade.

Employment insurance is not delayed

Employment insurance (雇用保険) is a percentage of each payment — 0.5% for an ordinary business in 2026 — taken from the pay it is charged on. It appears on the first payslip.

The first payslip withholds more income tax

The monthly withholding table is read on your pay after social insurance. With no health insurance or pension taken off, more of the first pay reaches the table, so more tax is withheld. It is not a penalty: the year is settled at the December year-end adjustment, which uses the whole year’s actual insurance.

The drop from the first payslip to the second is ¥53,279. Nothing has gone wrong; the first one was missing two deductions that every later one has. The figures are for somebody single, under 40, in an ordinary business, with the 扶養控除等申告書 filed; the calculator on this site gives the second column for your own salary.

Resident tax is collected a year behind

Resident tax (住民税) is charged on the previous calendar year’s income and collected from the June after it, by the municipality you lived in on 1 January. Somebody who arrives in 2026 has no 2026 bill at all; the first one arrives in June of the year after their first 1 January here. That is a much longer delay than the insurance one, and a much bigger step when it ends — why your first payslips in Japan have no resident tax covers it.

If you already lived in Japan on 1 January — a new job rather than a new arrival — there is a bill, and the question is who collects it. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ English leaflet names the two ways: special collection (特別徴収), where an employer deducts it from each salary, and general collection (普通徴収), where the municipality sends you payment slips. When you change jobs, what the old employer can no longer take is collected in one of three ways: in one sum from your last pay — automatically if you leave between January and May — by general collection, or by the new employer carrying on with the deductions if you ask it to. So a first payslip at a new job with no resident tax on it does not mean the tax has stopped: the slips may be on their way to your home. Resident tax when you change jobs follows it month by month.

The last paycheck is the mirror image

The same rule works the other way when you leave. The Japan Pension Service states that premiums run from the month you join up to the month before the day after your last day. Leave in the middle of a month and that month has no premium, so the last pay carries only the previous month’s. Leave on the last day of a month and that month counts, so the employer can take two months from the final pay — on ¥400,000 a month, ¥116,358 of health insurance and pension instead of ¥58,179. The first payslip is larger than usual; a month-end last one can be much smaller. If you are leaving Japan, resident tax adds to it.

Comparing the first payslip and the second in the calculator

1. Enter the salary you were offered, your prefecture and your age in the calculator, and set When you arrive in Japan to the month you start.
2. The monthly take-home it shows is your second payslip onwards: health insurance and the pension are already taken off it.
3. For the first payslip, add the health insurance and pension lines back. Income tax on the first pay is a little higher than the calculator’s, because the table is read before those premiums come off — in the example above, by ¥4,900 — so take that off again.
4. Look at the timeline for the month resident tax begins. Until then neither payslip has any.

What to do with the difference

• Budget from the second payslip, not the first. The first is the one that looks like a mistake in your favour, and it is.
• Keep the resident tax in mind. The months before it starts are larger than the years after them. The calculator dates the drop from the month you arrive.
• Keep your first payslips. If a later one looks different, the first two are the easiest way to see which deduction moved.

Questions people ask

Am I insured if nothing was deducted from my first paycheck?

Yes. You are insured from the day you join, and the premium for that first month is charged in full; it is only collected a month later, from the next pay.

Why was more income tax taken from my first paycheck?

The monthly withholding table is read on your pay after social insurance. With no health or pension premium taken off yet, more of the pay falls into the table, so more tax is withheld. December’s year-end adjustment evens it out.

When will resident tax start?

In the June after your first 1 January living in Japan. It is charged on the previous calendar year’s income, so a new arrival pays none of it for months.

I changed jobs and my first payslip has no resident tax. Has it stopped?

Usually not. If you lived in Japan on 1 January there is a bill. What your old employer could not take was either taken in one sum from your last pay or moved to payment slips sent to your home (general collection, 普通徴収), unless you asked the new employer to carry on with the deductions.

This is a general explanation. Employers differ in their pay dates and payroll practice; the payslip and your employer’s payroll are the authority on your own case.

Sources

• Japan Pension Service — Practical Guide to Pay Employees’ Pension Insurance and Other Contributions (the due date, and deducting the previous month’s contribution from the current month’s salary). English.
• Japan Pension Service — 退職した従業員の保険料の徴収 (premiums from the month you join to the month before you lose cover; one or two months from the last pay). Japanese.
• Japan Pension Service — 厚生年金保険の保険料 (the grade set on joining and used from the month you join). Japanese.
• Health Insurance Act (健康保険法) 第167条第1項 and Employees’ Pension Insurance Act (厚生年金保険法) 第84条第1項 — 保険料の源泉控除 (the previous month’s premium from the salary; the previous month’s and that month’s on leaving), e-Gov.
• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications — For foreign residents working in Japan: Don’t forget to pay resident tax! (special collection and general collection; the notice each June). English.
• National Tax Agency — 令和8年分 源泉徴収税額表 (the monthly table, read on pay after social insurance).
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — 令和8年度 雇用保険料率 (0.5%). Local Tax Act (地方税法) 第39条・第318条 and 第321条の5 (resident tax on the previous year, from June).

See your own payslips month by month