You have decided to sell after you leave Japan. What should you do now? — The things you can only do before you close your residence record

There are things that can only be done before you close your residence record. The certificate of registered seal, the documents for a change-of-address registration, the contract from when you bought, a Japanese bank account, and notification of your tax agent in Japan. If you have decided to sell after you leave, deal with these five while you are still here.

This page is for people who have decided to sell after they leave Japan. How to sell before you go is set out in our feature on selling property before leaving Japan, and how to sell if you already live overseas in A guide to selling Japanese real estate for overseas owners.

Last updated: ◯ ◯ 2026

Is selling after you leave actually a disadvantage?

It is. But the disadvantages are known ones.

	Selling before you leave	Selling after you leave
Tax taken off the top	None	The buyer withholds 10.21% of the price at source. Getting it back means a final tax return the following year
Certificate of seal	Available, because you are still on the residence register	Not available. Instead, a signature certificate from a Japanese embassy or consulate abroad (appointment, journey)
Point of contact for tax	Only the notification of your tax agent before you leave	A tax agent is indispensable as the point of contact for the whole sale
Viewings, keys, items left behind	Half an hour of your time on site	Nobody in Japan to deal with them
The buyer's reaction	An ordinary transaction	Buyers dislike the extra work of withholding, so there tend to be fewer of them
How long it takes	Two to three weeks at the shortest	Months, with documents crossing borders and time zones in between

How much of the right-hand column you can fill in now is the subject of this article. You cannot make it all disappear — but much of it can be made lighter.

What is the very first thing to do?

Obtain your certificate of registered seal and your residence record. Before you file the moving-out notification.

Close your residence record and the seal registration ends with it. No certificate of registered seal can then be issued. The substitute is a signature certificate obtained from the Japanese embassy or consulate in the country where you live, which requires an appointment and a journey.

When	What to do	Why
Before the moving-out notification	Obtain the certificate of registered seal (two copies)	It cannot be obtained after you leave
Before the moving-out notification	Obtain your residence record (two copies)	Used as proof of address
If you have not registered a seal yet	Take your residence card to the ward office. It can be done the same day	Can a foreign resident register a seal in Japan on the same day?

Do watch the validity periods. Certificates used for registration have a limited life, so if the timing of the sale cannot be predicted, "get them now and be safe" is not necessarily right. Discuss it with a judicial scrivener (shiho-shoshi) alongside your best estimate of when you will sell.

Have you checked the address on the register?

If the address on the register is still the one from before you moved, it has to be put right before you sell.

A change-of-address registration has in any case been compulsory since 1 April 2026. The application must be made within two years of the day of the change, and neglecting it without justification carries a non-penal fine of up to JPY 50,000 (Real Property Registration Act, Article 76-5 and Article 164, paragraph 2).

The supporting documents are easier to assemble while you are in Japan. The residence records and the supplementary record to the family register (koseki no fuhyo) that link your successive addresses can be obtained over the counter while you are still on the residence register. Once you have moved out of Japan, it becomes a matter of a certificate of residence abroad from a Japanese embassy or consulate, and that takes longer.

There is more in What happens if the address on the register is still your old one?.

Have you found the contract from when you bought?

In money terms this is the one that counts most.

Where the acquisition cost is not known, an amount equivalent to 5% of the sale price becomes the acquisition cost (Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation, Article 31-4; National Tax Agency, No.3258). Sell for JPY 50 million and the acquisition cost is JPY 2.5 million. Even if you actually bought at JPY 40 million, the difference is taxed unless you can prove it.

Where to look	What may turn up
The bundle of papers from when you bought	The contract of sale, the explanation of important matters, receipts
Your copies of final tax returns (for the years you claimed the housing loan tax credit)	A copy of the contract is sometimes attached
The bank that lent you the mortgage	The amount borrowed is a clue to the purchase price
The estate agent who acted on the purchase	A file copy of the contract is sometimes still held

Once it is buried in the luggage going overseas, it becomes unfindable. Check before you start packing. There is more in What happens to the tax if you cannot find the contract from when you bought?.

Are you keeping your Japanese bank account?

You need it both to receive the proceeds and to pay the tax.

Some people close their accounts when they leave, but if you are selling after you leave, you need somewhere for the yen to land. The purchase money is, as a rule, transferred to an account in your own name, and the account is used for tax payments too.

At the same time, keeping an account means keeping something that can be seized. Pay what is due and nothing happens. Leave an account open with tax unpaid, and it is the first thing to be reached (How long does unpaid Japanese tax follow you after you leave?).

The conditions for keeping an account open — notifying a change of address, renewing identity verification and so on — differ from one bank to another. Check with the branch where you hold the account before you leave.

By when must you file notification of your tax agent?

By the day you leave.

The Income Tax Act defines "departure from Japan" as ceasing to have an address and a place of residence in Japan without having filed the notification under Article 117, paragraph 2 of the Act on General Rules for National Taxes (Income Tax Act, Article 2, paragraph 1, item 42). Read the other way round: if you file the notification, you have not made a "departure" for the purposes of the tax law.

If you have not filed it, that year's return has to be completed by the time you leave (Income Tax Act, Articles 126 and 127). If you have, the ordinary deadline — 16 February to 15 March of the following year — is enough.

There is no qualification requirement for a tax agent, and a company may serve. But because the scope of the work includes preparing tax documents, we do not take the role ourselves; we introduce you to a licensed tax accountant (zeirishi). There is more in Does a tax agent in Japan need a qualification, and can a company act as one?.

The final checklist before you leave

In order. Everything down to item 8 is to be finished before the moving-out notification.

#	What to do	By when
1	Find the contract of sale and the receipts from when you bought	Before you pack
2	Obtain a certificate of registered matters and check the address on the register	The sooner the better
3	If the address is out of date, prepare for the change of registration (assemble the supporting documents)	Before the moving-out notification
4	If you have no seal registration, register one (same day, with your residence card)	Before the moving-out notification
5	Obtain the certificate of registered seal and your residence record (two copies of each)	Before the moving-out notification
6	Decide what to do with your Japanese bank account and check with the branch	Before the moving-out notification
7	Engage a licensed tax accountant and file the notification of your tax agent	By the day you leave
8	Sort out keys, items left behind and photographs of the interior, and settle a point of contact in Japan	Before you leave
9	Moving-out notification	After 7
10	Departure	—

Do not let 7 fall after 9. The order is: notification of your tax agent → moving-out notification → departure.

What about the period between leaving and selling?

The property stands empty. How it is to be looked after is a question to settle before you sell.

If it is left unmanaged, the burden of fixed asset tax can increase. The amendment to the vacant houses legislation that came into force on 13 December 2023 created the category of "inadequately managed vacant house", and a property that receives a recommendation loses the residential land tax reduction on fixed asset tax for the land.

From abroad, the early signals — branches growing over the boundary, post piling up — do not reach you. Letting the property is one of the options; see What to do with your home in Japan while you live overseas.

What this article is based on

Point	Source
Withholding at source (10.21%) when buying property from a non-resident, and that this is determined as at the date of delivery	Income Tax Act, Article 161, paragraph 1, item 5 and Article 212, paragraph 1; Act on Special Measures for Securing Financial Resources for Reconstruction, Article 28; Basic Circular on the Income Tax Act, 36-12; National Tax Agency, question-and-answer examples
"Departure from Japan" under the Income Tax Act = ceasing to have an address and a place of residence in Japan without filing notification of a tax agent	Income Tax Act, Article 2, paragraph 1, item 42
The final tax return where a person departs from Japan (by the time of departure)	Income Tax Act, Article 126, paragraph 1 and Article 127, paragraph 1
Appointment of a tax agent and notification of the appointment (by the day of departure)	Act on General Rules for National Taxes, Article 117; National Tax Agency, "A1-7 Procedure for notification of the appointment or dismissal of a tax agent for income tax and consumption tax"
That where the acquisition cost is not known an amount equivalent to 5% of the sale price may be taken as the acquisition cost	Act on Special Measures Concerning Taxation, Article 31-4, and the circular on that Act, 31-4-1; National Tax Agency, Taxanswer No.3258
The duty to apply for a change-of-address registration (within two years of the day of the change) and the non-penal fine	Real Property Registration Act, Article 76-5 and Article 164, paragraph 2 (in force 1 April Reiwa 8 (2026))
Inadequately managed vacant houses and the loss of the residential land tax reduction	Act on Special Measures concerning the Promotion of Measures against Vacant Houses (Act No. 50 of Reiwa 5 (2023); in force 13 December 2023)

This page provides general information only. The validity periods of certificates, and which documents are needed, differ with the procedure and the timing. Individual registration procedures are handled by a judicial scrivener, and individual tax judgements are made by a licensed tax accountant. How each bank handles matters should be checked with the bank itself.

Real estate brokerage is undertaken by Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (Real Estate Brokerage Business Licence, Governor of Tokyo (1) No. 113304), and the preparation of documents for licence and permit applications by Yotsuba Administrative Scrivener Office, under a separate contract in each case. For registrations we introduce you to a judicial scrivener and for tax matters to a licensed tax accountant, and you contract with each of them directly. We receive no referral fee.

About the author Joji Uramatsu | Representative Director of Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. and its full-time Real Estate Transaction Specialist (takken-shi). Administrative scrivener. Former China Bureau Chief of the Mainichi Shimbun, with 34 years as a journalist; posted to China, Taiwan and Thailand in that role. Passed the Certified Social Insurance and Labour Consultant examination (practice scheduled to open September 2026).

Related links

• Feature: selling your property before you leave Japan
• A guide to selling Japanese real estate for overseas owners
• Does a tax agent in Japan need a qualification, and can a company act as one?
• What happens to the tax if you cannot find the contract from when you bought?
• What to do with your home in Japan while you live overseas
• Contact us