Savings calculator

How Much You Bring Home from Japan in 1 to 10 Years (2026)

Your pay, your city and your rent give what you save each month and each year, and the total with the pension refund, in yen and in your own money.

Start from the average basic pay of

Average basic pay of June 2025 by status of residence (MHLW wage survey, without overtime and bonuses). Enter your own from your contract or payslip.

Basic pay a month

Overtime hours a month

Bonuses a year

City where you work

How you live

Rent or dormitory a month

Left empty: a studio by the rent survey, ¥46,000. Enter your dormitory fee or rent if you know it.

Years in Japan

Cost of going (USD)

USD

Age and dependents

Age

Dependents

The agency's fee or a loan you still owe, in your own money. It is taken off the total.

What 3 years in Japan bring home (Kagoshima)

¥4,707,876

≈ $29,600

At the Ministry of Finance's rate for October 2026: ¥10,000 = $62.9. A bank or a money transfer service converts at its own rate. Rates (Bank of Japan)

Saved in 3 years	¥3,783,876$23,800
Pension lump sum (nenkin) to your bankAfter 20.42 % income tax is withheld; about four months after your claim arrives.	¥735,320$4,620
The 20.42 % back with a tax returnThrough a tax representative, from January 2031.	¥188,680$1,190

One month

	Year 1	From year 2
Pay with overtime	¥274,167	¥274,167
Health, pension and employment insurance	− ¥41,495	− ¥41,495
Income tax	− ¥5,510	− ¥5,510
Resident tax	¥0	− ¥11,000
Take-home	¥227,162	¥216,162
Rent or dormitory	− ¥46,000	− ¥46,000
Food, utilities, transport, the rest	− ¥68,721	− ¥68,721
Left to save	¥112,441	¥101,441

Resident tax starts in the second year, on the first year's pay.

Year by year

Year	Take-home with bonuses	Living costs	Saved	So far
1	¥2,725,944	− ¥1,376,652	¥1,349,292	¥1,349,292
2	¥2,593,944	− ¥1,376,652	¥1,217,292	¥2,566,584
3	¥2,593,944	− ¥1,376,652	¥1,217,292	¥3,783,876

This month as a Japanese payslip The pension lump sum in detail The month's costs in detail

What a stay brings home, by years (Kagoshima)

The wage survey's basic pay with 10 hours of overtime a month, no bonus, one person saving hard in a studio in Kagoshima, the city in the middle of the 78 by cost. Savings, plus the pension lump sum and its tax back.

Status and basic pay	1 year	2 years	3 years	5 years	10 years
Technical intern trainee¥190,300	¥907,600$5,710	¥1,727,100$10,900	¥2,546,600$16,000	¥4,185,600$26,300	¥6,083,100$38,300
Specified skilled worker¥221,400	¥1,271,292$8,000	¥2,433,384$15,300	¥3,595,476$22,600	¥5,919,660$37,200	¥9,090,120$57,200
All foreign workers¥254,300	¥1,657,292$10,400	¥3,182,584$20,000	¥4,707,876$29,600	¥7,758,460$48,800	¥12,304,920$77,400

From 10 years there is no lump sum, and the old-age pension is not in the total.

Questions

How much do 3 years in Japan bring home?: In Kagoshima, the city in the middle of the 78 for one person saving hard, a technical intern trainee at the survey's ¥190,300 a month with 10 hours of overtime brings home about ¥2,546,600 ($16,000) after 3 years: savings, the pension lump sum and its tax back. A specified skilled worker at ¥221,400: ¥3,595,476 ($22,600). Your own pay, city and rent change it; set them above.
Why do people in Tokyo save less?: Rent. A studio in Tokyo's 23 wards costs about ¥100,000 a month by the survey, and a trainee at ¥190,300 who rents one has − ¥11,963 left in the first year's month. With a ¥30,000 dormitory the same pay leaves ¥58,037 a month and ¥2,572,332 after 3 years.
Is the nenkin refund included?: Yes. The total adds the pension lump sum (脱退一時金) for the months you worked, at most 60: what reaches your bank after 20.42 % income tax, and that tax back, through a tax return a tax representative files from the January after the lump sum is paid. The claim must reach the pension service within two years of leaving.
What about 5, 7 or 10 years?: The lump sum counts at most 60 months, so years 6 to 9 add savings but no more lump sum. From 10 years of pension coverage there is no lump sum at all: you have earned a Japanese old-age pension instead, paid from 65. A lump sum also erases the months it pays for, so a second stay starts counting again.
Does sending money home cost anything?: The amounts in rupiah, dong or rupees use the Ministry of Finance's rate for the month. A bank or a transfer service converts at its own rate and charges its own fee, so what arrives is a little less. Compare what each one delivers, not only its fee.
I paid an agency or borrowed money to come. How does that count?: Enter what going cost you, or what you still owe, in your own money under "Cost of going". It is taken off the total, so the answer is what you really have after the stay.

How it is worked out

Pay: the month as a payslip for your basic pay and overtime (25 % above the hourly rate), with health insurance at the 協会けんぽ rate of the city's prefecture, pension 9.15 %, employment insurance 0.5 % and income tax by the 2026 withholding table. Bonuses are two payments through the bonus table.

Resident tax: none in the first year, because it is charged on last year's income in Japan. From the second year, what a year of this pay and these bonuses gives, a twelfth each month.

Living costs: one person in a studio, from the Statistics Bureau's Retail Price Survey (rent) and its Family Income and Expenditure Survey (utilities, food, transport, the rest), as on the monthly budget page. Your dormitory fee or rent replaces the studio.

Leaving: the pension lump sum on 12 months a year at this pay, at most 60 months, none from 120. Not counted: the small refund or extra of the year-end adjustment, trips home, and the transfer's fees.

Sources

Single, no spouse; the same pay every month of every year; the rates of 2026 for every year. An estimate for planning, not a tax calculation for a return.

Net salary calculator Trips home and re-entry Visa renewal fees