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XJuly 7, 2026

Japan taxes inheritance at up to 55 percent, the developed world's top rate on what you leave your children. And it can reach your assets anywhere on earth. People move here for safety, food and an income tax that looks reasonable. Almost nobody prices the estate tax waiting at the end. The rate runs on a progressive scale, 10 to 55 percent, and it is levied on the heir, not the estate. The top band applies to each statutory heir's share above 600 million yen, about 3.24 million euros or 3.7 million dollars today. The basic exemption is modest, 30 million yen plus 6 million per statutory heir. For a spouse and two children that is 48 million yen, around 259,000 euros or 296,000 dollars. The exemption tracks the number of heirs, not the size of the estate. The reach is what catches people, and it turns on the status of both sides, the person who dies and the heir. Hold a permanent residence or spouse visa, a Table 2 status, and your worldwide assets are generally in scope. Foreign accounts, property abroad, all of it. On a work visa you can stay shielded on overseas assets, but only while you count as a temporary resident, 10 years or less of the last 15. Assets sited in Japan are taxable in every case. Then the lookback. A Japanese national who leaves stays exposed on worldwide assets when a domicile in Japan falls within 10 years of the death. A foreign national who gives up that domicile is generally back to Japan-sited assets only, as long as the other party is foreign too. The worldwide bite tracks residence and nationality, not the calendar alone. Honest caveat. 55 percent is the marginal top rate, not the effective one. Spouse relief and below-market property valuations pull real bills down. Even so, a UHY study of 28 economies put Japan first on a 3 million dollar cash inheritance passed to two adult children, an effective 38.5 percent. Heaviest either way. And note the shape of it. Japan has no annual wealth tax at all. Income tax runs to a 45 percent national top, and with the reconstruction surtax and about 10 percent local tax on top, the highest earners already sit close to 56 percent. Yet it is the transfer, not the income, where Japan tops the developed world. Top rates on a direct-line inheritance, for scale: Japan: 55 percent South Korea: 50 percent France: 45 percent, up to 60 percent for unrelated heirs United States: 40 percent federal United Kingdom: 40 percent Everyone optimizes the tax they pay while alive. The one that decides what the next generation actually keeps sits at the end of the plan, unpriced. Would you take the developed world's heaviest inheritance tax, reaching your worldwide estate, for the safety and the lifestyle? Or is succession the line you build the whole plan around first? Data from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer I build at Lucky Nomads.

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