Making a will as a British expat in Japan

By Jamie Lee · Published 15 October 2026

Japan starts from your national law when it looks at your estate, and an English will is formally valid there, so the will itself is the easy part. The hard parts are what no will can fix: a bank freeze your family meets in the first week, an estate process with no probate and no family register entry for you, and an inheritance tax that Japan charges your heirs, on worldwide assets, based on their visa status and yours. And the longer you stay, the more of your estate Japanese law can quietly claim back.

Start with the practical picture, because it is what your family would meet first. When a Japanese bank learns of a death, the account freezes. Since the 2019 reforms an heir can withdraw a limited amount before the estate is divided, a third of the balance times their statutory share, capped at 1.5 million yen per bank, and beyond that the money waits. Japan has no probate in the English sense: no court grant, no executor with authority stamped on a certificate. The estate passes directly to the heirs, and absent a will covering the asset, most things, from the bank release to the flat's title, move only when every heir signs and seals an estate division agreement.

Japanese families prove who the heirs are with the koseki, the family register. You don't have one. A foreign resident's heirs prove kinship with UK birth and marriage certificates, translated into Japanese, usually with affidavits sworn before a notary standing in for the register Japan expects. The Legal Affairs Bureau's legal-heir certificate system is unavailable where the deceased was a foreign national; the Ministry of Justice says so explicitly. None of this is hostile. All of it is slow, and it lands on a grieving spouse in two languages at once.

The law is on your side, with a shrinking guarantee

Japan's conflict of laws rule is straightforward on its face: inheritance is governed by the national law of the deceased. Japan has also signed up to the international convention on will formats, so a will made in English form is formally valid. For a British national, English law and the English will made under it are the starting point, and for many expats they are also the finishing point.

Now the honest part. Japanese law asks your national law where it points, and English law points questions about land to the country where the land sits. In practice Japanese law governs Japanese real estate through the doctrine called renvoi; Tokyo firms publishing on international estates state it as the working rule. English law points questions about your other assets to your domicile, a technical concept that is hard to shift but not impossible: a Brit who has settled in Japan permanently, Japanese spouse, no plan to return, may have shifted it. Japanese law then governs most of the estate. Even so, a will keeps most of its force. Japanese law respects wills; it gives close family a claim to a reserved portion, a total of half the estate in most family shapes shared among the claimants, which since 2019 operates as a money claim rather than a claim on particular assets. The practical reading: the will remains the operative document in every branch of this, but the longer and more permanently you stay, the more the Japanese overlay matters, and a Tokyo or Osaka flat sits under Japanese rules either way.

The tax falls on your family

Japan's inheritance tax works backwards from Britain's. The UK taxes the estate; Japan taxes each heir on what they receive. That single difference produces the outcome British expats find hardest to believe: your Japanese spouse, or your children living in Japan, can owe Japanese tax on your UK house, your ISAs and your pension money, because what matters is the heirs' status and yours. Where the assets sit changes nothing for an heir in full scope.

The scope rules turn on residence history and visa type. Broadly, an heir living in Japan is taxed on worldwide inheritances, with one carve-out: foreign assets escape when the heir is a temporary foreigner, on a Table 1 visa (work, study and similar) with no more than 10 of the past 15 years in Japan, and the deceased was also a foreign national on a Table 1 visa. Hold a spouse visa or permanent residence, on either side of the inheritance, and the carve-out is gone. The mechanics are unforgiving: a basic deduction of 30 million yen plus 6 million per statutory heir, progressive rates from 10% to 55%, and a filing and payment deadline 10 months after death. There is real relief for a surviving spouse, tax free up to the greater of 160 million yen or the spouse's statutory share, provided the estate is divided by the deadline.

Two more facts belong in every British household's file. There is no UK and Japan inheritance tax treaty; Japan's only death tax treaty is with the United States, so where both countries tax, relief comes through each side's unilateral credit rather than a treaty, and a long-term UK resident's estate can still be inside UK inheritance tax at the same time. And if you have a Japanese mortgage, the group credit life insurance common with Japanese home loans, dantai shinyo hoken, clears the outstanding loan when the borrower dies. Many families' biggest fear, the mortgage, is often the one thing already handled. If the numbers are large, pay for an hour with a Japanese tax adviser. An English will changes none of this tax.

The children

If both parents die, a guardian for minors in Japan is appointed by the family court unless one was designated in advance, and Japanese law lets the last parent with parental authority designate a guardian by will. Whether a designation made in a foreign will binds a Japanese family court has no clean official answer; treat it as persuasive rather than guaranteed, and name the guardians anyway, because it gives the court something concrete to work from. If your children are dual nationals with family on both sides of the world, name two layers of guardian: someone in Japan who can be at the school gate that afternoon, and the permanent guardians wherever they are.

One more status point for the household file: a surviving spouse on a dependent visa, or a foreign spouse of a Japanese national, must notify immigration within 14 days of the death, and should expect roughly six months to move to a new status.

What the English will fixes, and what it doesn't

It fixes the part you control. It says who inherits under the national law Japan applies to a Briton's estate, names an executor for the UK side, and carries your guardianship wishes. And it shortens the Japanese paperwork: the estate division process needs every heir's signature and seal, and heirs sign faster when a will has already settled who gets what, with a 10-month tax clock running.

It does not reduce Japanese inheritance tax, stop the account freeze, conjure a koseki entry, or override reserved portion claims where Japanese law applies, and it does not administer a Tokyo flat by itself. Anyone who tells you one document fixes an international estate is selling the document too hard. A current will removes the biggest source of delay: the argument over who inherits, settled before the estate division agreement and the 10-month deadline need it.

The sensible stack

Make or update the English will: who inherits, executor, guardians named. A will that predates your marriage, your children or Japan itself is the usual gap.
Consider a Japanese notarised will (kosei shosho yuigon) alongside it for Japan-situs assets, especially property. Have the two drafted to work together, each stating plainly which country's assets it covers, and have a professional check the revocation clauses so neither cancels the other.
Build the Japan file: apostilled UK birth and marriage certificates with Japanese translations, a list of accounts and the mortgage with its danshin policy, your visa types and arrival year (they set the tax scope), and the will's location.
Keep accessible money in each spouse's sole name; the freeze is real and the partial withdrawal cap is 1.5 million yen per bank.
Know the death logistics before anyone needs them: a death in Japan is notified locally within 7 days, and cremation is the norm there. The UK government's guidance warns against cremation abroad if a coroner's inquest in England and Wales might be wanted.
If your heirs live in Japan or your estate spans both countries at scale, get an hour with a Japanese tax adviser before the 10-month clock ever starts. Tell your family where everything is, in both languages if your household runs in two.

An Expat Legacy will is drafted under the law of England and Wales around expat circumstances, guardianship nominations included, and reviewed by a person before your documents are released: £149 for a single will, £249 for mirror wills for a couple. Japan starts from your national law when it looks at your estate. Give it something written under that law to work with.

Sources

Expat Legacy provides England and Wales wills and general information about cross-border estate planning. This is general information only. It is not legal or tax advice for your circumstances, and Japanese law and tax outcomes depend on facts, including residence history and visa status, that vary by family; for Japanese property, tax or court matters engage a qualified professional in Japan. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change. Position stated as at August 2026.

Common questions

Is an English will valid in Japan?

Japan's conflict of laws rule points to the national law of the deceased, and Japan has signed up to the international convention on will formats, so a will made in English form is formally valid there. For a British national the English will is the starting point. Japanese law still governs Japanese real estate in practice, and close family can claim a reserved portion where Japanese law applies.

Who pays Japanese inheritance tax on a British expat's estate?

Japan taxes each heir on what they receive rather than taxing the estate, so the heirs' residence history and visa status decide the scope. An heir living in Japan is broadly taxed on worldwide inheritances, with a carve-out where the heir is a temporary foreigner on a Table 1 visa with no more than 10 of the past 15 years in Japan and the deceased was also a foreign national on a Table 1 visa. There is no UK and Japan inheritance tax treaty, so where both countries tax, relief comes through each side's unilateral credit.

Can money be taken out of a Japanese bank account before the estate is divided?

Since the 2019 reforms an heir can withdraw a limited amount before division, calculated as a third of the balance times their statutory share and capped at 1.5 million yen per bank. Beyond that the account stays frozen until every heir signs and seals an estate division agreement. Keeping accessible money in each spouse's sole name is the practical way to cover the household in the meantime.