What taxes apply when buying property in Japan?

Three main acquisition taxes apply: the real estate acquisition tax (fudosan shutoku zei), the registration and licence tax (toroku menkyo zei) charged when ownership and any mortgage are registered, and the stamp duty (inshi zei) on the sale contract. Agent commission and a loan guarantee fee are additional but are not taxes.

How much is the real estate acquisition tax?

The standard rate is 4 percent of the assessed value, but residential land and buildings benefit from a reduced 3 percent rate, and land also has its assessed base halved under current relief measures. This tool uses 3 percent on residential property as a reasonable estimate; the actual base is the local assessed value, not always the purchase price.

What is the registration and licence tax?

This tax is paid when the transfer of ownership is registered. For a building transfer the standard rate is 2 percent, often reduced to 0.3 percent for owner-occupied homes meeting conditions. Registering a mortgage adds 0.4 percent of the loan, reduced to 0.1 percent for qualifying homes.

How is the stamp duty (inshi-zei) calculated?

Stamp duty in Japan is a fixed amount based on the contract price band, not a percentage. For example, contracts from 10 million to 50 million yen carry 10,000 yen, and 50 million to 100 million yen carry 30,000 yen under the reduced rates for real estate contracts. This tool applies the standard banded schedule.

Is the tax based on the purchase price or assessed value?

Acquisition and registration taxes are legally based on the local government assessed value, which is often lower than the market purchase price. Because that figure is not public until assessment, this tool uses the purchase price as an estimate, so your actual taxes may be lower. Treat the result as an upper-bound budget.

Japan Stamp Duty / Transfer Tax Calculator

Email me this result

Get this tool's output sent to your inbox, plus one useful tool a week. No spam, unsubscribe any time.

Buying property in Japan brings several one-off acquisition taxes that catch many buyers by surprise. This calculator estimates the three main ones — the real estate acquisition tax, the registration and licence tax, and the contract stamp duty — so you can budget the full purchase cost rather than just the price.

How it works

The tool combines a percentage-based acquisition and registration tax with a banded fixed stamp duty:

acquisition tax = price × 3%               (residential land/building)
registration    = price × buildingRate     (2% standard, 0.3% owner-occupied)
mortgage reg.   = loan × 0.4%              (0.1% for qualifying homes)
stamp duty      = fixed amount by price band (inshi-zei schedule)
total           = acquisition + registration + mortgage reg. + stamp duty

Stamp duty is a flat figure per contract-value band rather than a rate. The acquisition and registration taxes are legally based on the assessed value, which is usually lower than the purchase price, so the result is a conservative upper bound.

Example and notes

A 50,000,000 yen owner-occupied apartment bought with a 40,000,000 yen mortgage attracts roughly 1,500,000 yen acquisition tax, 150,000 yen registration tax at the reduced owner-occupier rate, 40,000 yen mortgage registration, and 30,000 yen stamp duty, for about 1,720,000 yen of acquisition taxes. Because the legal base is the assessed value, your actual bill is often lower. Add agent commission and the loan guarantee fee separately; those are charges, not taxes.