- Where the “one million yen” figure actually comes from — the overseas remittance record (kokugai sōkin-tō chōsho), filed by the financial institution, not by you
- That the rule covers not only money sent abroad but money received from abroad, with the threshold set at one million yen by cabinet order, the deadline being the last day of the month following the month of the exchange transaction, and the filing going to the competent tax office
- That what you hand the bank is a different document — the notification (kokuchisho) — and it carries no monetary exemption at all
- And the point of the article: one million yen is not the filing threshold. For a salaried employee, the question is whether non-salary income exceeds ¥200,000 (NTA No.1900 / No.1906)
Key points: quick answers
- Q: Is it true that receiving more than one million yen from abroad gets reported to the tax office?
- A: The reporting mechanism is real. Article 4(1) of Japan's Overseas Remittance Records Act requires a financial institution to file a record for overseas remittances and receipts made through its offices, “excluding those whose amount is not more than the amount specified by cabinet order” — and Article 8(1) of the enforcement order sets that amount at one million yen. But the filer is the bank, not you, and this has nothing to do with whether you need to file a tax return. For your own situation, consult your competent tax office or a licensed tax accountant.
- Q: So if I stay under one million yen, do I skip the tax return?
- A: No. That figure governs a bank's paperwork, not your filing obligation. NTA No.1900 lists, among those who must file, a person receiving salary from one source subject to withholding in full whose “total amount of various types of income (excluding employment income and retirement income) exceeds ¥200,000.” The two numbers differ by an order of magnitude and measure different things. How it applies to you is a question for your competent tax office or a licensed tax accountant.
This article is educational content for people receiving affiliate payouts from overseas operators, written by working through the primary sources. It is not tax advice. Whether you must file, which income category applies, and what exchange rate to record are individual determinations. Please confirm your own situation with your competent tax office or a licensed tax accountant. The provisions and statements quoted here were checked against e-Gov and the National Tax Agency in September 2026; laws, rulings and their administration change.
Where the rumour comes from
If you take affiliate payouts from an overseas operator, you will hear this one sooner or later: receive more than one million yen from abroad and the tax office finds out. It usually arrives without a source. And the person who hears it quietly draws the obvious conclusion — that below a million, nothing happens.
That conclusion is where the trouble starts. The rumour is half true. The figure exists. It has a statutory basis. But it is not a threshold for anything you file, and it is not the threshold that decides whether you owe a tax return.
This article separates the two. Left tangled, they lead to a comfortable belief with no legal basis behind it: “under a million, so I'm fine.” What you should have by the end is an order of operations for checking your own position.
The figure belongs to the overseas remittance record — filed by the bank
The governing statute is the Act on Submission of Records of Overseas Remittances for Securing Proper Domestic Taxation (the Overseas Remittance Records Act). Article 4(1) reads, in relevant part:
“Where a financial institution has carried out an exchange transaction pertaining to an overseas remittance or receipt made by its customer (excluding public corporations, etc.) through an office of that financial institution (excluding those whose amount is not more than the amount specified by cabinet order), it must submit, for each such remittance or receipt, a record … by the last day of the month following the month containing the day specified by ministerial order as the day on which the exchange transaction was carried out, to the competent District Director of the Tax Office for the location of the office of the financial institution pertaining to that exchange transaction.”
Source: Act on Submission of Records of Overseas Remittances … | e-Gov Law Search (Japanese)
Four things are worth pulling out of that sentence.
| Question | What the provision says |
|---|---|
| Who files | The financial institution — not the customer |
| What it covers | Exchange transactions for the customer's overseas remittances and receipts |
| By when | The last day of the month following the month of the exchange transaction |
| To whom | The competent District Director of the Tax Office for the bank office's location |
The key term is the Japanese compound kokugai sōkin-tō, which looks like it means “overseas remittance” and nothing more. Articles 2 and 3(1) of the same Act define it as “an overseas remittance or the receipt of a remittance, etc. from overseas.” Article 2(v) defines that second half as the receipt of a payment directed from outside Japan into Japan through an exchange transaction carried out by a financial institution.
The term does not refer only to money leaving the country. It includes receiving money sent into Japan from abroad. Taking an affiliate payout from an overseas operator can fall squarely within that second limb.
Article 4(1)(ii) confirms it by listing what the record must contain for receipts: the name of the customer who received the remittance from overseas, that customer's address, the amount received, and other matters specified by ministerial order.
So where does one million yen enter? It is the “amount specified by cabinet order” referenced in Article 4(1). Article 8(1) of the enforcement order supplies it.
“The amount specified by cabinet order prescribed in Article 4(1) of the Act shall be one million yen.”
Source: Enforcement Order of the same Act | e-Gov Law Search (Japanese)
Because the statute excludes amounts “not more than” that figure, the record is required for overseas remittances and receipts exceeding one million yen. The NTA's own procedural page, “F4-1 Overseas Remittance Record (and summary table),” names the filer as “financial institutions,” the timing as the end of the month following the exchange transaction, and the destination as the District Director of the Tax Office with jurisdiction.
Worth noting: that NTA page carries no monetary figure at all. The one-million-yen number lives in Article 8(1) of the enforcement order — which may be part of why it travels so freely without its source attached.
Source: F4-1 Overseas Remittance Record (and summary table) | National Tax Agency (Japanese)
What you hand over is a different document
Everything above concerns the bank. The same Act also imposes a duty on you — the notification under Article 3.
“A person who makes an overseas remittance or receives a remittance, etc. from overseas (excluding public corporations, etc.) must, except where that remittance or receipt falls under a specified remittance or a specified receipt, submit a notification stating the matters set out below … to the head of the office of the financial institution … at the time of the overseas remittance or receipt.”
Matters stated for a receipt (item (ii)): “the person's name, address, and Individual Number or Corporate Number, and other matters specified by ministerial order.” For a remittance (item (i)), add “the content of the transaction or act giving rise to the overseas remittance” — the purpose of the remittance.
Set side by side, the two documents are different animals.
| Remittance record (Art. 4) | Notification (Art. 3) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who files | The financial institution | You |
| Filed with | The competent District Director of the Tax Office | The head of the bank's office |
| Monetary exemption | Not more than ¥1,000,000 is excluded | No monetary threshold at all |
| What exempts it | The amount | Being a specified remittance or specified receipt |
| Main contents | Name, address, amount, etc. | Name, address, Individual Number (My Number), purpose of remittance, etc. |
The notification carries no monetary exemption of the kind the record has. That alone is enough to sink “under a million, so nothing needs to be submitted.”
It can still be excused — but on a different basis. Article 3(2) defines a “specified receipt” as a receipt of a remittance from overseas made into the person's own verified account at the institution, or an equivalent case prescribed by cabinet order. Receiving into your own identity-verified account can fall within that.
Whether you are actually asked for a notification, on what form and when, depends on how your bank administers it. Banks do sometimes call after an incoming overseas payment to ask what the money is for — which is not unrelated to this regime. What you specifically need to submit is a question for your bank, and for your competent tax office or a licensed tax accountant.
Account information sits under a separate framework (CRS)
There is a second mechanism people reach for in this conversation: the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). It is not about remittances. It is about financial accounts.
The NTA's CRS page describes the framework as follows.
“Under this standard, the tax authority of each country receives reports of financial account information held by non-residents from financial institutions located in its own country, and provides that information to the tax authority of the non-resident's country of residence, pursuant to the exchange-of-information provisions of tax treaties and similar instruments.”
What is written there is that general framework. Each country's authority collects non-resident account information from its own institutions and passes it to the account holder's country of residence. An account held abroad by someone resident in Japan is, from that country's point of view, a non-resident account. As a matter of the general rule, then, a route exists by which such information can reach the Japanese side.
The paragraph above is an inference from a published general framework. We did not find, on the NTA's page, a statement permitting the flat claim that your overseas account information will certainly reach the Japanese tax authority. Which accounts and institutions fall in scope, whether the other jurisdiction participates, and the timing of reporting all vary with the facts. For your own case, consult your competent tax office or a licensed tax accountant.
And the same caution applies here as everywhere else in this article. Whether information arrives and whether you must file are separate questions. Nothing in the law makes the second conditional on the first. The next section is the one that matters most.
The point: one million yen is not the filing threshold
Every use of one million yen so far has been about a record — who submits what, by when, to whom. Whether you must file a tax return is decided elsewhere, on an entirely different measure.
NTA No.2020 describes the income tax return as “the procedure for calculating and determining the amount of income arising in the one-year period from 1 January to 31 December each year and the amount of income tax, etc. thereon.” No remitted amount appears anywhere in that. What appears is the amount of income.
If you draw a salary and take affiliate payouts on the side, the pages to read are No.1900 and No.1906.
Among those listed as required to file: a person “receiving salary from one source where that salary is subject to withholding in full, and whose total amount of various types of income (excluding employment income and retirement income) exceeds ¥200,000.”
Sources: No.1900 | NTA (Japanese) / No.2020 Filing an income tax return | NTA (Japanese)
“Even a salaried employee whose year-end adjustment is complete must file a return — other than a person who would obtain a refund by filing — where they have obtained income exceeding ¥200,000 from side earnings, etc., beyond their employment income.”
Source: No.1906 Salaried employees with side income from online auctions, etc. | NTA (Japanese)
Put the two numbers next to each other and the mismatch is obvious.
| ¥1,000,000 | ¥200,000 | |
|---|---|---|
| Threshold for what | Whether the bank files a record | Whether a salaried employee must file a return |
| Basis | Act Art. 4(1); Enforcement Order Art. 8(1) | NTA No.1900 / No.1906 |
| What it measures | The amount of an overseas remittance or receipt | The amount of non-salary income |
| Who acts | The financial institution | You |
This is the sentence the article exists for. “Under a million, so I don't need to file” does not follow. The two thresholds measure different quantities: one is the line at which a bank produces paperwork, the other is the line at which you file.
Note also that ¥200,000 is measured on income, not gross receipts. On categories, NTA No.1500 defines miscellaneous income as income falling under none of interest, dividend, real estate, business, employment, retirement, timber, capital gains or occasional income. Which category your payouts fall into, and what you may deduct, turns on the substance of your activity — take that determination to your competent tax office or a licensed tax accountant.
Local inhabitant tax is a separate system with a separate counter from income tax. We have a related article on the basics of “ordinary collection” for side-hustle resident tax, but how any of it applies to you is a matter for your municipality and a licensed tax accountant.
Recording a payout that arrived in foreign currency
If the payout lands in dollars, there is still the question of what yen figure to record. A ruling covers it: Income Tax Basic Ruling 57-3-2 (yen conversion of foreign-currency transactions).
“Yen conversion under Article 57-3(1) of the Act (Conversion of foreign-currency transactions) — other than conversion where Article 57-3(2) applies — shall be at the mid-rate between the telegraphic transfer selling rate and the telegraphic transfer buying rate for customers on the day on which the transaction is to be recorded (the ‘transaction date’).”
“Provided, however, that in calculating income from a business giving rise to real estate income, business income, timber income or miscellaneous income, on condition of continuous application, sales and other revenue and assets may be converted at the telegraphic transfer buying rate on the transaction date, and purchases and other expenses and liabilities at the telegraphic transfer selling rate on the transaction date.”
Source: Rulings relating to Article 57-3 (Conversion of foreign-currency transactions) | NTA (Japanese)
In plain terms:
This ruling has been through a 2025 (Reiwa 7) amendment. Which rate, published by which institution, as of which moment, is a practical choice this article cannot make uniformly for every reader. Take your own record-keeping method to your competent tax office or a licensed tax accountant. What we can do here is show you what the ruling says.
What to do today
After all that statute, the work in front of you is small.
The one-million-yen figure this article started with turned out not to be a threshold you act on. The one you act on is ¥200,000 — and it is measured not on what arrived but on what remains after expenses. Rumours preserve the big number and lose the small one. The small one is the one attached to your actual work.
With records in hand, the judgement calls can be handed to a professional. Without them, February arrives and there is nothing to judge. Building the record is the part you can finish today.
Frequently asked questions
[Disclaimer] This article is educational content produced by the Kingfin English Editorial Team and is not tax advice. It sets out a general reading of published statutes, rulings and National Tax Agency pages; it does not determine any individual taxpayer's filing obligation, income category, deductible expenses or foreign-currency conversion method. Please confirm your own position with your competent tax office or a licensed tax accountant. The provisions and statements quoted were checked in September 2026 against e-Gov Law Search (the Act on Submission of Records of Overseas Remittances for Securing Proper Domestic Taxation and its enforcement order) and NTA pages (F4-1 Overseas Remittance Record, No.2020, No.1900, No.1906, No.1500, the rulings relating to Article 57-3 on conversion of foreign-currency transactions, and the CRS Corner); laws, rulings and their administration change. English renderings of Japanese provisions are ours and are provided for understanding, not as official translations. The passage on CRS explains a published general framework and does not assert that any particular individual's account information is in fact exchanged. Separately, OlympTrade, promoted through Kingfin's affiliate programme, is an FX and binary-options trading service and is not registered as a financial instruments business operator in Japan. Trading always carries the risk of losing your principal, and no outcome can be guaranteed. Affiliate results and payout amounts are likewise not guaranteed and vary between individuals.
