Potential Japan Tax Issues, returning to Japan

Good evening,

I will be returning to Japan in the near future, and so *I’m worried about how any previous tax issues will affect my VISA/ or change of status of residence application in the future.*

I am in dire need of some guidance regarding taxes in Japan. I am not sure if I need to pay some income/residence tax/ if I should have paid it before I left Japan.

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For background, I lived in Japan from September 2022 to November 2022 (so very recently) and received two payments from my Japanese employer. As I understand it, they deducted all of the social insurance premiums (health insurance, welfare pension, employment insurance) from my pay, but they **did NOT take any income tax** from my pay. I have therefore not paid any income tax on my earnings in Japan.

My employer didn’t explain anything regarding taxes or the procedures to me before I left Japan, so I am now panicking as to what I need to do. My Japanese language ability is not good enough to make calls in Japanese/ find out information/ etc.

From the information I have managed to find out online I should have paid any taxes **BEFORE I left Japan**, OR **appointed a tax agent (someone who lives in Japan) to deal with taxes on my behalf.**

In order to appoint a tax agent however, I’ve read that you also must do this before leaving the country. I didn’t (because I didn’t know about this).

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**TLDR;** I need to pay taxes/ appoint a tax agent in Japan FROM OUTSIDE OF JAPAN (I live in the UK).

I want to make sure I don’t break any laws regarding taxes, I was simply not informed of any of this before my departure. I don’t want this to affect future VISA applications / or change of status of residence applications in the future. That would be devastating.

Please help, or point me in the right direction. I’m truly worried.