Overseas Dependents in Japan: The ¥380,000 Rule

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

A relative living outside Japan can give you an exemption for dependents (扶養控除) against your income tax (所得税) and your resident tax (住民税), but since the 2023 tax year one age band has an extra test. If they are 30 or over and under 70, they count only if they no longer have a domicile or residence in Japan because they went abroad to study, or they are a person with a disability, or you paid them ¥380,000 or more during the year towards living or education costs — any one of the three. Under 30 and 70 or over there is no such test. In every case you file documents proving the relationship, and documents proving the money moved.

Who counts, by age

Age means age on 31 December. The middle band catches people out: a parent in their sixties is in it, a parent of 70 is not.

What the ¥380,000 rule actually says

The National Tax Agency’s wording is that the relative has to be someone “who receives payment of 380,000 yen or more from the taxpayer to cover living expenses or educational expenses during the year”. Three things follow from reading it closely, and each of them is a way people get it wrong:

• Per relative, not per household. Two parents abroad are two tests: ¥380,000 split between them satisfies neither.
• It is the total over the calendar year claimed for — not the twelve months before you file, and not one payment: transfers add up.
• It has to be for living or education costs. Money sent for anything else is not what the rule describes.

Documents concerning remittances are issued by somebody else, not written by you. The National Tax Agency names three: a financial institution’s document showing you paid the relative through an exchange transaction; a credit card company’s document showing the relative bought goods on a card it issued and that the price has been or will be received from you; and, from the 2024 tax year, an electronic means of payment operator’s document for such a transfer. On the ¥380,000 route what they must establish is the year’s total to that relative, and anything not in Japanese needs a translation.

What one of them is worth

A relative of 30 to 69 who meets the test is an ordinary dependent, which in 2026 is a ¥380,000 deduction for income tax. What that turns into depends on your rate. Take ¥400,000 a month in Tokyo, no bonus, under 40, and one relative abroad in their thirties:

• Monthly income tax falls from ¥10,750 to ¥7,910 — ¥2,840 a month, because the monthly withholding table counts them from the first payslip after you declare them.
• Over a settled year, ¥19,400 less income tax — the monthly figure is only withholding, and December settles it — and ¥35,500 less resident tax, landing the following June.
• ¥54,900 a year in take-home, for one relative.

Miss the test and none of it applies: the deduction is not reduced, it is absent. The resident-tax half lands late — resident tax runs a year behind. What the ¥380,000 saves depends on the rates that would have applied to the income it removes, so it is worth more to someone taxed in a higher band; the ¥10 million page sets out where each band starts.

Entering it in this calculator

In the Dependents section, put each relative in their age row — Aged 23 to 69 for a parent in their sixties, and past 70 either Parent or grandparent 70+, living with you or your spouse or Any other dependent 70+. Then fill in Of those, aged 30 to 69 and living outside Japan, and take that label literally: a relative of 70 or over put in it takes the deduction from somebody in the 23-to-69 row instead — on the salary above, ¥54,900 a year removed from the wrong person.

A checkbox then appears: Each of them is studying abroad, has a disability, or I sent them ¥380,000 or more during the year — where “studying abroad” is the source’s category, a relative who gave up their address in Japan to study. Unticked, the calculator drops those dependents and says so under the figures; ticked, they count. It is one switch for the whole field, though, and the real test is per relative. So if some pass it and some do not, enter only the ones who do not and leave the box unticked. (Each field stops counting at twenty, so past that the answer drifts.)

What this page does not do

It does not give you the forms, and it assumes they are already in. The two sets are wanted at different moments: documents concerning relatives (and the visa copy, on the study route) go with the dependents declaration (扶養控除等申告書) you give your employer, and the documents concerning remittances at the December year-end adjustment (年末調整). The monthly figure follows the first of those — hand them over late and it starts from the payday after, not from the month you first mention the relative. December settles the year either way. The year-end adjustment guide lists each form and what goes with it, with a short checker.

A spouse abroad is a different deduction (配偶者控除) with its own income test, and is not this page’s subject. The calculator also assumes the relatives you enter pass the ordinary dependent test, their own income included: outside the 19-to-22 row, which has an income field, there is nowhere to tell it otherwise.

Questions people ask

Do I need to send ¥380,000 to each relative?

Only if the payment route is the one you are relying on: a relative of 30 to 69 who left Japan to study, or who is a person with a disability, qualifies without it. Where you are relying on the payments, yes — it is a test on what that relative received from you, one at a time. Under 30 and 70 or over there is no amount in the rule, but documents concerning remittances are still part of the filing, so money still has to have moved and be evidenced.

What counts as proof that I sent it?

One of the three kinds above, identifying the relative who received the money. Cash carried by hand leaves nothing an employer can check.

Can I claim my parents if they are 70 or older?

That test ends at 69, so it does not reach them. They are a dependent of the 70-plus kind, a larger deduction than the general one: ¥480,000, or ¥580,000 for a parent or grandparent sharing a home with you or your spouse — which can be abroad, if your spouse is there too. You still file both sets of documents, and the overseas count reaches neither row.

This is a general explanation and an estimate, not advice about your situation. Which documents your employer accepts, and how a family’s circumstances are treated, is a question for them and for a 税理士 (licensed tax accountant).

Sources

• National Tax Agency — No.12016 Exemption for dependents, etc., for relatives living outside Japan (the age bands, the three routes for 30 to 69, the remittance wording quoted above, and the documents each route needs). English.
• National Tax Agency — No.1180 扶養控除 (the deduction amounts, the 16-and-over rule, and the same non-resident restriction stated in Japanese as applying from 令和5年分). Japanese.
• National Tax Agency — 国外居住親族に係る扶養控除等のQ&A (which documents go with the declaration and which at the year-end adjustment, and that a document handed over late is reflected from the first pay after it). Japanese, PDF.

See what one dependent changes