Who you can claim
A relative living abroad counts by their age on 31 December. From 16 to 29 and from 70, any amount sent to them counts. From 30 to 69, they count only if they study abroad, have a disability, or got at least ¥380,000 from you that year. Children under 16 bring no dependent deduction for income tax. Your spouse is claimed with the spouse deduction and needs the same papers.
A dependent can be a relative by blood up to the sixth degree, or by marriage up to the third, whose income counted in Japan is ¥580,000 or less. The full spouse deduction is for taxpayers whose own income is ¥9 million or less; it gets smaller above that and ends at ¥10 million.
What proves a transfer
The record of a bank or remittance service that sent money from you to that person, the statement of a family credit card in their name that you pay, or the record of an electronic payment. Cash handed to a friend or carried home is no proof. Money sent to one person proves nothing for another: if everything goes to your mother, your father does not count.
Papers in another language need a Japanese translation.
What goes to your employer
With the dependents form (扶養控除等申告書): each relative's family document. At the year-end adjustment: the papers of every transfer of the year. From three transfers to one person, the statement (送金関係書類の明細書) with the papers of the first and the last transfer replaces them. For a relative on the ¥380,000 rule, add papers until they add up to ¥380,000. Keep the rest.
The tax office's statement form is not a legal one: a statement with the same facts, like the one this page fills in, may be handed in instead.
If you missed the year-end adjustment
Claim your dependents in a tax return with the same papers, from 16 February to 15 March of the next year. A return that only asks for tax back can be filed for five years after the year.
What it is worth
Each dependent lowers your taxable income by ¥380,000 for income tax and ¥330,000 for resident tax (¥630,000 and ¥450,000 from 19 to 22, ¥480,000 and ¥380,000 from 70). At a 5 % income tax rate that is about ¥52,400 less tax a year, at 10 % about ¥71,800. The income tax part comes back at the year-end adjustment, the resident tax part lowers next year's bills from June.
Sources
Ages on 31 December; amounts in the yen you actually paid. The tax it is worth is at a 5 % or 10 % income tax rate with the 2.1 % surtax, and 10 % resident tax, rounded to ¥100. Rules read on the National Tax Agency's pages on 25 October 2026.
