Japan's 20% Crypto Tax: Already Enacted, Start Date Not Yet Set (August 2026)

Japan's flat 20% separate tax on crypto gains is not a proposal — it is enacted law. The FY2026 income-tax amendment act (Act No. 12 of 2026) was promulgated on 31 March 2026; the act moving crypto regulation into the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (Act No. 64 of 2026) passed the Diet on 15 July and was promulgated on 23 July 2026. What is not settled is when either starts. The tax change is keyed to the amended FIEA's effective date, that date is to be fixed by cabinet order within one year of promulgation, and as of August 2026 no such order has been issued — so no calendar year is officially stated anywhere. Until one is, the current regime — miscellaneous income, aggregate taxation, up to 55% — applies in full.

What Japanese crypto investors pay today

The National Tax Agency classifies profits from crypto-asset transactions as miscellaneous income (雑所得) as a rule, shifting to business income where annual crypto revenue exceeds ¥3 million and books are kept. That income is taxed on an aggregate basis, stacked on salary at progressive rates. The Financial Services Agency describes the result in its own words: up to 55% — 45% national income tax plus 10% local inhabitant tax, excluding the special reconstruction income tax, which is charged separately at 2.1% of the base income tax amount.

Three features do more damage than the rate:

• Losses are trapped. A loss inside miscellaneous income cannot offset salary or other income; per the NTA, only real-estate, business, timber and capital-gains losses may. No set-off means no carry-forward.
• Swaps are taxable. Exchanging crypto-asset A for B counts as buying B with A, so income on A's disposal must be computed.
• Margin trading is not FX. It is a financial-instruments futures transaction as FX is, but statute excludes it from the futures regime.

What the enacted change does

The design was set in the FY2026 ruling-coalition tax reform outline of 19 December 2025, from the Liberal Democratic Party and Nippon Ishin no Kai.

New Article 38-2(1) sets the national leg at 15%; the familiar 20% is that plus 5% individual inhabitant tax, per the outline and FSA materials headed "system overview (income tax + inhabitant tax)" — figures that exclude the special reconstruction income tax, which would bring it to 20.315%. The FSA's table is the only official like-for-like comparison, placing crypto's move alongside listed equities, ETFs and financial futures, all already at 20%. The three-year carry-forward is new Article 38-3.

Which assets, and which trades

The rate does not attach to crypto generally. Article 38-2(1) limits it to a "specified crypto asset" — one entered in the Financial Instruments Business Operators Register under the FIEA, minus any excluded by Ministry of Finance ordinance — and only to disposals by entrusted sale through, or directly to, a registered crypto-asset trading business operator. That ordinance has not been issued, so no asset can yet be said to qualify. The statute states this condition and no rule for anything outside it.

Act No. 64 does the regulatory half: crypto moves out of the Payment Services Act into the FIEA as — in the FSA's own words — a financial product distinct from securities. It does not become a security. The act also creates crypto insider-trading rules, barring trading on a material fact until it is published.

When it starts: a rule, not a date

The enacted texts state a rule. They do not state a year.

• Act No. 12, supplementary provisions Article 1: the new crypto chapter takes effect on 1 January of the year following the year in which the next listed provision does — and that provision is the effective date of Act No. 64.
• Act No. 64, supplementary provisions Article 1, main clause: the act takes effect on a day fixed by cabinet order within one year of promulgation. The crypto provisions fall under that clause, and the FSA's own effective-date chart places them on that track.

As of August 2026 the order has not been issued. The only cabinet order published under Act No. 64 so far covers a separate tranche effective twenty days after promulgation, with no reference to crypto.

On the years you see quoted

Commentary quotes 2027 in some places and 2028 in others; no primary source states either. Applying the enacted rule to the enacted facts gives the following — arithmetic performed here, not a statement by any source. Act No. 64 was promulgated 23 July 2026, so its crypto effective date falls in 2026 or 2027, and the change starts 1 January of the following year. The start is therefore either 1 January 2027 or 1 January 2028; nothing else is arithmetically possible, and which one turns entirely on the unissued cabinet order. This page takes no view.

Still unsettled

• Consumption tax. The outline proposes reclassifying crypto transfers as transfers of assets "similar to securities" (currently: similar to means of payment), still exempt. Outline stage only — crypto does not appear in Act No. 12's consumption-tax provisions.
• Crypto ETFs. The FSA conditions separate taxation for them on an amendment to the Investment Trust Act enforcement order, and still labels the current state "formation not currently possible".
• Asset scope. The Ministry of Finance ordinance defining exclusions from "specified crypto asset" has not been issued.

Corporate crypto taxation is untouched this cycle.

How Japan's tax-reform year runs

Observed FY2026 dates, from primary sources — what this cycle did, not a forecast.

Next update

This page updates on the cabinet order fixing Act No. 64's effective date — publication turns the start year into a fact, and the section above gets rewritten. Its timing is not scheduled; the statutory outer limit is one year from promulgation. Watch FSA press releases and the Official Gazette.

Primary sources

• NTA — crypto-asset tax FAQ
• NTA — No.2260, income tax rates
• FY2026 ruling-coalition outline (PDF)
• FSA — FY2026 outline, FSA items
• FSA — Access FSA, February 2026 (PDF)
• FSA — FY2026 tax reform requests
• Diet record — Act No. 12 of 2026
• Diet record — Act No. 64 of 2026
• FSA — 221st Diet bill materials
• FSA — press releases

Related: The Tax Consequences of a Forced Liquidation for Japanese Crypto Traders

This page is general information provided for informational purposes and is not tax advice. It reflects primary sources as verified on 6 August 2026. For how it applies to a particular situation, consult the National Tax Agency's published materials.