If an American citizen works in Tokyo, Japan, do they pay taxes to the Japanese Government?

Question

If an American citizen works in Tokyo, Japan, do they pay taxes to the Japanese Government?

Answer 1

Withholding income tax(Gen-sen Choshu Zei) system is usually operated if you are employed in company office, firm or plant in Japan.

Residential tax also might be deducted if necessary once you registered in somewhere there.

USA and Japan agreed on tax treaty so that you don't pay tax double for income in Japan.

Answer 2

Depends on the company they're working for. More or less, yes. No one works tax free.

If you work for an American company, you'd probably have a special tax status. With a Japanese company I'm sure you'd have to follow their tax laws.

Answer 3

In short Americans living in Japan must pay taxes to both the USA and Japan.

The taxes one pays to the Japan Tax Authorities depends on the conditions of the working visa.  

If you have what is known as an extended business trip visa (work in Japan less than 1 year), you only need to pay national taxes.

If you have a working visa you need to pay national and local taxes.  

To further complicate things, American citizens still must pay taxes to the IRS even though they are living outside of the USA.  To make it more complicated, US citizens must pay taxes to the IRS based on total income made world wide, but the IRS gives foriegn tax payment credits.

If you simply fly to Japan enter with a 90 day toursit visa and attend meetings and what not, you are technically not working in Japan and are not subject to pay any taxes in Japan.

FYI, I have always had to pay taxes in Japan, I have never had a tax refund from either the national or local tax authorities