Japan Pension Refund Tax Representative: Getting the 20.42% Back

Key Takeaways

• When you claim the Employees' Pension lump sum from outside Japan, 20.42% is withheld as income tax before the money is sent. The National Pension lump sum is not taxed, so there is nothing to claim for it.
• You get the tax back by filing a "Tax Return for Refund Due to Taxation on Retirement Income at the Taxpayer's Option" at the tax office for your last address in Japan.
• A non-resident needs a tax representative (納税管理人, nozei kanrinin; the official English is "Tax Agent") to file it. The representative can be a person or a company with an address in Japan. No license is needed.
• The refund is paid into the representative's Japanese bank account, not yours. Choose someone you trust to send it on.
• The return can be filed only from 1 January of the year after your lump sum was decided. The general limit for refund returns is 5 years from that date.
• For many workers the retirement income deduction is larger than the lump sum. If your average standard monthly pay was 363,636 yen or less and you had no other retirement pay that year, the whole 20.42% should come back.

Why Japan takes 20.42% first

Japan treats the Employees' Pension lump sum as retirement income. When it is paid to someone who no longer lives in Japan, 20.42% is withheld at the source, and for a non-resident that normally ends the matter.

There is an exception. You can choose to be taxed as if you still lived in Japan. A resident gets a large deduction on retirement income, so the tax calculated that way is often zero. The difference between that and the 20.42% already taken is refunded.

A tax treaty does not normally remove this tax. The National Tax Agency's position is that, under tax treaties, the pension lump sum is treated like employment income, so Japan, where you did the work, can in principle tax it. The refund return is the way to get it back.

If you have not claimed the lump sum itself yet, start with Japan Pension Refund: How to Claim the Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment. This article begins where that one stops.

How much comes back

The deduction depends on how many years of coverage your lump sum was based on. A part of a year counts as a full year. The deduction is 400,000 yen for each of those years, with a minimum of 800,000 yen.

If the gross lump sum (before tax) is not more than the deduction, the tax is zero and you get the full 20.42% back. The Employees' Pension lump sum is your average standard monthly remuneration times a rate, so the table below turns that into a salary figure you can check.

Any other number of months from 6 to 60 gives a limit above 363,636 yen. At 30 months, for example, the rate is 2.7 and 3 years are counted, so the limit is 444,444 yen.

If your pay was above the limit, you still get most of the tax back. Take someone who averaged 450,000 yen a month for 36 months:

This uses the tax rates for a lump sum decided in 2026. The calculation changes if you also received a retirement allowance from an employer in the same year, or if you had a retirement payment in an earlier year. In those cases, ask the tax office or a tax accountant to check the deduction before you rely on the number.

Who can be your tax representative

The Japan Pension Service's claim form says there is no qualification for the tax representative other than having an address or place of residence in Japan. The National Tax Agency adds that the representative can be an individual or a company.

In practice, people usually ask one of these:

Once the notification is filed, letters from the tax office go to the representative, not to you. The representative's role covers filing returns, receiving the tax office's documents, and receiving refunds.

If you want someone licensed, the Japan Federation of Certified Public Tax Accountants' Associations runs a public search site for registered tax accountants, and on our /find-help page you can ask us for free which kind of professional you need. You do not have to hand over a percentage of your refund to anyone. Compare any fee with the refund you worked out from the table above.

Before you leave Japan: file the notification

The form is the "Notification of Tax Agent for Income Tax/Consumption Tax" (所得税・消費税の納税管理人の選任・解任届出書). The same form is used to appoint and to dismiss a representative. The National Tax Agency says to file it by the day you leave Japan, at the tax office for your address.

You can bring it to the tax office, mail it, or file it through e-Tax. To find the office for your address, use the National Tax Agency's tax office locator.

If you already left without filing it, you are not stuck. The Japan Pension Service's form says you can submit the notification together with the refund return. Someone in Japan still has to agree to be your representative first.

After the lump sum arrives: the refund return

When the Japan Pension Service pays the lump sum, it mails you a Notice of Lump-sum Withdrawal Payment Determination (脱退一時金支給決定通知書). The pension form tells you to send the original to your tax representative. Scan it before you post it.

The year on the return is the year of the decision date on the notice. The National Tax Agency's own filled-in sample for a pension lump sum works this way: the lump sum was decided in 2025, so the return is for 2025 and can be filed from January 2026. No other deductions, such as for dependents or insurance, can be claimed on this return.

On timing, the National Tax Agency says paper refund returns filed in the February and March filing season take about 1 to 1.5 months to pay, and e-Tax filings about 3 weeks. Here is how it adds up for someone who leaves in March 2026:

Almost a year passes between leaving Japan and the tax money coming back. Keep your representative's contact details, and let them know when the notice is on its way.

Mistakes that cost people the refund

• Leaving without a representative and with nobody in Japan you can ask. The return has to be filed and the refund paid in Japan.
• Filing in the same year the lump sum was paid. The return is accepted only from 1 January of the following year.
• Losing the original determination notice. The pension form says to send the original. Keep a scan in case it goes missing in the mail.
• Giving your own overseas account. When you have a tax representative, the refund goes to the representative's account in Japan.
• Picking a representative who leaves Japan. To change, file the same form once to dismiss the old representative and again to appoint the new one.
• Forgetting about it. The general limit for refund returns is 5 years from 1 January of the year after the lump sum was decided.
• Paying a share of the refund without checking the numbers. Work out your refund with the table first, then decide whether a fee is worth it.

The /pension-refund calculator shows the lump sum and the 20.42% withheld, with peso figures, which is a good starting point for the numbers above.

Sources

• Japan Pension Service: Lump-sum Withdrawal Payments, claim forms in English and other languages. The English/Japanese claim form (March 2026 edition) covers the 20.42% withholding, the refund return, where to file, the tax representative's qualification, filing the notification with the return, and sending the original determination notice
• National Tax Agency: 退職所得の選択課税の記載例 (filled-in samples of the refund return). Sample 2 is an Employees' Pension lump sum: the return year, filing from 1 January of the following year, the representative's bank account, no other deductions
• National Tax Agency: A1-7 納税管理人の選任届出又は解任届出手続 (tax representative notification). When to file, e-Tax or paper, the form and its instructions (My Number, ID, overseas address, the representative's duties)
• National Tax Agency: No.1923 海外勤務と納税管理人の選任又は解任. Representative can be an individual or a company, tax office letters go to the representative, how to change representatives
• National Tax Agency: No.1420 退職金を受け取ったとき (retirement income). The deduction of 400,000 yen per year with an 800,000-yen minimum, the halving, rounding a part year up
• National Tax Agency: No.2030 還付申告 (refund returns). Refund returns can be filed for 5 years from 1 January of the following year
• National Tax Agency: 確定申告期に多いお問合せ事項 Q&A 【税金の還付】. Refund timing (1 to 1.5 months on paper in the filing season, about 3 weeks by e-Tax) and the rule that a refund goes to the tax representative's account
• National Tax Agency: みなし退職所得に対する租税条約の適用関係. The Employees' Pension lump sum falls under the employment income article of tax treaties and can in principle be taxed in Japan
• National Tax Agency: 税務署の所在地などを知りたい方 (tax office locator)
• Japan Federation of Certified Public Tax Accountants' Associations: 税理士情報検索サイト (tax accountant search)
• Hanapon: /pension-refund calculator, /find-help