JJapan Finance

I will only be in Japan for 1 year on spouse visa. Do I still need my own Japanese bank account to pay tax, health insurance, and pension?

  • September 18, 2025

I will only be in Japan for 1 year on spouse visa. Do I still need my own Japanese bank account to pay tax, health insurance, and pension?

by LactatingJello

6 comments

  1. Yes, as long as you’re a resident for longer than 3 months, you need to pay for the health insurance and pension. You won’t need to pay for residence tax (City tax) unless you are resident on January 1 of the next calendar year but you’ll have to pay national tax on all your  employment income.

    Now depending on if you’re a dependent on your spouse, your spouse’s company will be responsible for paying all of these. However if you want a job in Japan you’ll need a bank account for receiving your salary (taxes will be withdrawn at source) 

  2. While I’m not sure about all taxes, you can very much get by most government payments with just cash or apps that would accept cash deposits from ATMs like PayPay.

  3. Your question was specifically whether you need your own bank account, right?

    No, you can pay taxes, health insurance, and pension in cash.

    Depends a bit on how much in taxes, though. They are unlikely to be high enough to warrant needing a bank account but who knows.

    In general it doesn’t hurt to have an account, though.

  4. I dont think you need a back account to do any of that, but at the same time, if you’re there for a year or more, I’d feel like not having a bank account would be a bigger headache than making one.

  5. Your main question is, do you need your own bank account?

    No, all of the items you indicated can be paid in cash. That said, it can be inconvenient not to have your own bank account – is there any particular reason or concerns that you have regarding opening one?

  6. It’s nice to have a bank set up on the off chance you need it. I set mine up in app (did not got in once) with Japan Post Bank. They even mail you your cash card. Takes about 15 minutes with your residence card and then you can forget about it, put the card somewhere once you have it.

    It’s more convenient to put a lump sum in the bank and set up auto deposits.

    But no, you don’t need a bank account. But you will have to go to in person and pay each bill (in my case monthly for NHI). Not the biggest pain in the world but I’ve been late a few times by simply forgetting or misplacing my paper bills.

Comments are closed.