How to Count the Five Years for Japan's Non-Permanent Resident Test (非永住者)

Last reviewed: 2026-10. The counting rules below were checked in October 2026 against Income Tax Act Article 2 and Income Tax Basic Circular 2-4の2 and 2-4の3 on the National Tax Agency site.

This page explains how the five years in the non-permanent resident test are counted. The non-permanent resident 5-year check does the same arithmetic in your browser. The three income-tax categories themselves are in Japan’s three tax statuses when you leave.

What this page will not do

TakoyakiCPA does not decide whether you have a domicile (住所, jūsho) or a residence (居所, kyosho) in Japan on any day, and it does not decide your income-tax category. The count below starts from periods you already treat as domicile or residence. Choosing those periods is the hard part, and it is a determination this page does not make. Tax Answer No. 2012 says domicile is the base of living and is decided on the facts. Days of stay do not decide it on their own.

A Japanese national is never a non-permanent resident. The count only matters for a resident who does not have Japanese nationality.

The test in one sentence

Income Tax Act Article 2, paragraph 1, item 4, defines a non-permanent resident (非永住者, hieijūsha) as a resident who does not have Japanese nationality and whose total period with a domicile or a residence in Japan within the past ten years is five years or less. Tax Answer No. 2010 restates the same definition.

The statute gives the limit. It does not give the counting method. That is in two short paragraphs of the Income Tax Basic Circular.

Step 1: Fix the ten-year window

Basic Circular 2-4の2 says “the past ten years” runs from the same day ten years before the determination date (判定する日) through the day before the determination date.

For a determination date of December 31, 2026, the window is December 31, 2016, through December 30, 2026. The determination date itself is not inside the window.

The statute does not say the test is used only on December 31. Article 8 can split one year into more than one category, so the date you test matters. December 31 is used in the examples here because it is the date many readers check first.

Step 2: Mark each period, and drop the entry day

Basic Circular 2-4の3 says that where the day you came to have a domicile or residence (the circular calls it the entry day, 入国の日) and the day you stopped having one (the departure day, 出国の日) both fall within the past ten years, the period runs from the day after the entry day through the departure day.

So the entry day is not counted, and the departure day is. A stay from March 1 to March 21 counts 20 days, March 2 through March 21.

Step 3: Count each period by the calendar

The same paragraph says to count by the calendar (暦に従って計算), and to count anything shorter than a month in days. A period is measured in full years, then full months, then leftover days, from its first counted day.

Example: a stay that began on April 1, 2022, and is still continuing, tested on December 31, 2026. The first counted day is April 2, 2022, and the last day inside the window is December 30, 2026.

April 2, 2022, through April 1, 2026: 4 years
April 2, 2026, through December 1, 2026: 8 months
December 2 through December 30, 2026: 29 days

The total is 4 years, 8 months, and 29 days. That is five years or less. If every later day were also domicile or residence, the first determination date on which the total would go over five years is April 3, 2027.

Step 4: Add several periods, then convert 30 days to a month

Where there is more than one period, 2-4の3 says to add the years, the months, and the days separately. Then 30 days count as one month, and 12 months count as one year.

Two stays in 2024, March 1 to March 21 and August 1 to August 21, are 20 days each. Added, they are 40 days. The circular’s step turns that into 1 month and 10 days. The figure compared with five years is 1 month and 10 days, not “40 days”.

The step can push a total over the line. Take two periods tested on December 31, 2026:

June 1, 2016, through March 31, 2019. The entry day is before the window, so the count starts on the first day of the window, December 31, 2016. That stretch is 2 years, 3 months, and 1 day.
April 1, 2023, still continuing. That stretch is 3 years, 8 months, and 29 days.

Added: 5 years, 11 months, and 30 days. The 30 days become a month, and the 12 months become a year. The total is 6 years. That is over five years. The calendar-day count, 2,190 days, is not the figure the circular compares.

Step 5: Compare with five years

Article 2, item 4, says five years or less (五年以下). A total of exactly 5 years, 0 months, and 0 days is still five years or less. Only a total greater than that is over.

A stay from January 1, 2020, through January 1, 2025, tested on December 31, 2025, is counted from January 2, 2020, through January 1, 2025. That is exactly five years, so it is not over.

Basic Circular 2-3(3) deals with the year in which the total does go over. A resident who is not a Japanese national is a non-permanent resident through the days that are still within five years, and from the next day is a resident other than a non-permanent resident. Article 8 is why one year can contain both.

What the circular does not say

The circular is short. The cases below are not written in it. The 5-year check makes a choice for each and says so on the page. They are choices, not National Tax Agency examples.

A stay that is still continuing. 2-4の3 describes a period with both an entry day and a departure day. The tool counts a blank end date through the day before the determination date, the last day of the window.
A stay that began before the window. Only days inside the window count. The entry day is dropped only when that day is itself inside the window.
Overlapping periods. The circular says to add periods. It does not say to count the same day twice. The tool counts an overlapping day once.
A missing calendar day. If the same day ten years earlier does not exist (a February 29 determination date), or a month has no corresponding day, the tool uses the last day of that month. That is the rule in Civil Code Article 143, paragraph 2. The circular does not cite the Civil Code, and the National Tax Agency has not said whether Civil Code Article 138 brings that rule into this count.
A temporary absence. Basic Circular 2-2 and section 1-3 of the 2025 English guide say a clearly temporary absence can still be residence in Japan. Whether a trip is included is a judgment on the facts. The tool does not infer it.

If one of these cases is in your dates, the total depends on that reading. A tax office or a licensed tax accountant (税理士, zeirishi) can give a reading for your facts. This page cannot.

Using the 5-year check

The 5-year check asks for the periods you treat as domicile or residence and a determination date. It opens on December 31, 2026. It shows the window, each counted stretch, the years-months-days total, the comparison with five years, and the raw day count, labeled as not the figure that is compared. Nothing you enter leaves the browser.

Official sources

The Primary sources list below is the set this page relies on. The definition is Income Tax Act Article 2, item 4. The window is Basic Circular 2-4の2. The counting method is Basic Circular 2-4の3.