Inheritance Tax in Japan: I Had Land and Still Did Not Have to File

“There is real estate in the family, so inheritance tax will apply, right?”

If you think that, you can relax.

When my parent died, there was a co-owned share of land and some savings. But no inheritance tax filing was needed.

Even with real estate, most people should not need to file.

From what I went through, there are three things I want to say.

• No inheritance tax filing is needed if the estate is inside the basic exemption (30,000,000 yen plus 6,000,000 yen times the number of heirs)
• If you ask a judicial scrivener for the registration only, the cost stays under 100,000 yen (mine was 68,970 yen)
• Even when you understand almost nothing, you can ask the judicial scrivener what is needed and collect the documents yourself

Why can I say that? I will write what happened to me.

I Suddenly Remembered the Inheritance Tax

One day, out of nowhere,

“Now that I think of it, when my parent died,
what did I do about the inheritance tax?”

That came back to me.

I went to the town office.
I did the pension paperwork.
I changed the name on the land.

But about the inheritance tax,
strangely, I have almost no memory.

Days of Turning Pages of Paperwork Inside Grief

Inheritance is something you go through while grieving,
so maybe it is normal not to remember.

When my parent died,
there was simply so much to do.

The death registration, the pension, the change of name.

At the town office they told me the order of the procedures,
and I went through them one by one.

Those days of turning pages of paperwork inside grief
were really hard.
But harder than the papers
was the care I had to take with the neighbors, the relatives, and my siblings.
There was no time to grieve. I just kept dealing with people.
Maybe I kept busy to keep my mind off it.
In the middle of all that,
the inheritance tax never even entered my head.
I think that could not be helped.

My Mother Did Not Leave Much

What my mother left was,
I think, her share of the land and some savings, and that was about all.

The house was in my name,
but the land was co-owned, half and half, with my mother.

For the change of name on that land,
I went to the same judicial scrivener
who had done the paperwork when I built the house.

One Line From the Man at the Post Office

There is just one thing I still remember.
It is about a fixed deposit at the post office.

Around the time my mother got much weaker,
I remember saying something like this
to the man from the post office who came to the house.

“This is how she is now.”

Then he said,

“It might be good to think about
things like whose name it is in.”

Something like that.
He said it casually.

Was it advice,
or was he only talking to himself?
Now I cannot really tell.
But that one line has stayed in my head ever since.

After that, I went to the post office myself and did the procedure.

The Basic Exemption I Learned About Later

There is something I only learned much later.

Inheritance tax has something called the basic exemption.

30,000,000 yen plus 6,000,000 yen times the number of heirs

Up to that amount, there is no tax.
In Japan, it is said that only about one in ten people pay inheritance tax.
In other words, for most people it does not apply.

In my case, my father had already died, so the heirs were my brother and me, two people.
Up to the basic exemption of 42,000,000 yen, there was no tax.

What my mother left was her share of the land
and a small amount of savings.
It probably fit inside the exemption.
In other words, no filing was needed at all.

Back then, I did not even know such a system existed.
I think I checked with someone and found out that our family would not have to pay.
So I did not go to the tax office.
In the end, that was right.

By the Number of Heirs: A Quick Table of the Basic Exemption

Please try fitting your own case into this table.

Number of heirs	Basic exemption
1	36,000,000 yen
2	42,000,000 yen
3	48,000,000 yen
4	54,000,000 yen
5	60,000,000 yen

If the total value of the property of the person who died is below this, no filing is needed.

One warning. If you use a special rule (such as the special rule for small residential land) to bring the tax down to zero, you have to file even when the tax is zero.
Our family did not even need a special rule. The property was inside the basic exemption from the start. So nothing had to be done.

Many people believe that real estate always means tax. But for land in the countryside, or an older house, the assessed value is lower than you would think.

It was the same for us.

Finding the assessed value of real estate is easy. It is written on the property tax notice that the local government sends every year between April and June.
Or you can get a certificate of the assessed value for property tax at the town office.

But this assessed value can be used as it is only for the house. For the land, you use the road price (a price per square meter that the National Tax Agency sets for each road), or, where there is no road price, you multiply the assessed value for property tax by a rate that the National Tax Agency sets. I looked this up in the Tax Answer of the National Tax Agency, No.4602, on the valuation of land and houses.

If you do the math and it looks like it goes over the basic exemption, it is good to talk to a tax accountant. Many tax accountant offices give the first consultation for free, so you can just start by asking.

My Case: No Filing Was Needed

My case, put in order, looks like this.

• Heirs: two (my brother and me. My father had already died)
• Basic exemption: 42,000,000 yen
• What my mother left: a co-owned share of the land and a little savings
• Result: no filing needed

Even with real estate, if the assessed value fits inside the exemption, no filing is needed.

By the way, my brother and I talked it over when we divided the estate, and it was decided that I would inherit the land.

I Asked the Judicial Scrivener Only for the Registration: It Came to 68,970 Yen

This time, I dug out the receipt from back then.

Item	Amount
Fee for the judicial scrivener	54,000 yen
Consumption tax (8%)	4,320 yen
Stamp cost (registration license tax)	10,650 yen
Total	68,970 yen

In my memory, I thought it was much more. In fact, it was just under 70,000 yen.

Back then I felt it was expensive, and that is probably why it stayed in my memory that way.

Many articles on the internet say the cost of registering an inherited property is 200,000 to 300,000 yen. But that is when you hand everything to the judicial scrivener, even getting the documents.

In my case, I collected the documents myself and asked the judicial scrivener only for the registration. That is why it stayed under 100,000 yen.

I Collected the Documents Myself: Two or Three Trips to the Town Office Were No Trouble

If you hand everything to the judicial scrivener, they do it all.
But then the cost goes up by 100,000 to 200,000 yen.

I collected the documents myself. It was only two or three trips to the town office. It was no trouble at all.

The bundle of inheritance documents starts with me, and goes on to my wife and children, my siblings, my parents, my ancestors, and my relatives. In it are resident records going back about four generations.

The old resident records are written in a beautiful old hand, and they are hard to read.

But as I looked at these resident records, I could catch a glimpse of the brothers and sisters of my parents, the parents of my parents, their parents, and even the relatives of my parents.
I was born inside the flow of these people. That thought came to me, and it moved me.

A Registered Seal From My Brother: We Did Not Fight, and That Saved Me

When there is more than one heir, the “certificate of the agreement on dividing the estate” needs the name and the registered seal of every heir.

In my case, the only other heir was my brother. He lived in the same town, so two trips back and forth were enough.

If this turns into a fight, it is hard.
My brother did not complain, and there was no sister-in-law butting in. Even now, I think that saved me.

What I Wish I Had Done

What I think now is this.
While my parent was still well,
I should have talked about the property.

What is where.
How many bankbooks there are.
Whether there is any insurance.

Looking into all of it after a parent dies
is very hard, on the mind and on the body.
Even a simple note would have been enough.
A note saying what is where.
I wished for that many times.
This is one of those things where, by the time you have been through it, it is too late.

Summary: Even When You Understand Nothing, Asking Moves It Forward

Thank you for reading this far.

At the end, I will put in order once more what I wanted to know back then.

• No inheritance tax filing is needed if the estate is inside the basic exemption (30,000,000 yen plus 6,000,000 yen times the number of heirs)
• If you ask a judicial scrivener for the registration only, it stays under 100,000 yen (mine was 68,970 yen)
• You can collect the documents yourself. Two or three trips to the town office are enough
• The certificate of the agreement on dividing the estate needs the registered seal of every heir. Not fighting matters most

And more than anything, this is what I want to say.

There is just so much you do not understand. Ask the judicial scrivener what is needed, and collect the documents.

It is nothing to be ashamed of.
For almost everyone, it is the first time.

What you do not understand, you can simply ask.
From there, the procedures move forward, one step at a time.

Related: All the Procedures, and the Flow From Care

Before the inheritance tax, the whole set of procedures after a parent dies is here.

👉 When My Parent Died, I Had No Idea Where to Start — So I Asked the Office to Tell Me Everything

And before the inheritance comes care. I cared for my parent for five years.

👉 I Cared for My Mother at Home for 5 Years. Then I Reached My Limit.