- September 30, 2026
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Wondering what happens to your NISA when leaving Japan? Many foreign workers do, and the question often goes unanswered until the last minute. If you have spent years building up savings in a NISA or brokerage account, the idea of leaving it behind when you return home can feel unsettling.
Once you leave Japan and become a non-resident, you generally can no longer use a NISA. Your regular brokerage account may face restrictions too, and some brokerages may ask you to close it altogether.
In this guide, certified financial planner Masamichi Takayanagi explains the difference between residents and non-residents, how NISAs and taxable accounts are treated, what you need to sort out before you leave, and the tax points to watch for.
Once your departure date is set, your first move is to contact the brokerage that holds your account and check which procedures apply to your reason for leaving and your plans to return.
About the Supervisor & Writer
Masamichi Takayanagi
Financial Planner & columnist;
An independent financial planner with extensive experience as a financial columnist, specializing in a wide range of topics including asset management, life insurance, inheritance, loan products, and credit cards. Over 1,000 articles and projects have been contributed to the field.
1st grade Certified Skilled Professional of Financial Planning, Certified Financial Planner®.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: First, Your Status Changes from Resident to Non-Resident
When you leave Japan and become a non-resident for tax purposes, how your NISA and brokerage accounts are treated changes too.
Japan’s Income Tax Act splits people into two groups. You are a “resident” if you have a home base in Japan, or if you have lived in Japan for at least one year in a row. Everyone else is a “non-resident.”
Your “home base” is not just the address on your resident record (juminhyo). It is where your life is actually centered. The tax office looks at real, objective facts: where you live, what you do for work, where your assets are, and where your family lives.
Say you take a job that normally keeps you overseas for a year or more. In that case, you are usually assumed to have no home base in Japan. But this is not automatic. Going abroad for a year does not, by itself, make you a non-resident — your actual circumstances still matter.
One more thing that often gets mixed up: the moving-out notification (kokugai tenshutsu todoke) you file at your city office is a completely separate matter from whether the tax law counts you as a resident or not. They are two different systems.
Brokerages have their own rules for non-residents on top of this. Once you move abroad, some may limit your trading or ask you to close your account.
Source: National Tax Agency (NTA), “Distinction between Residents and Non-Residents” (Tax Answer No. 2875-1)
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Chapter 2: What Happens to Your NISA?
If you leave Japan for good — a permanent return home, rather than a temporary posting abroad — your NISA account is generally closed once you become a non-resident. This is the core of what happens to your NISA when leaving Japan for most people.
Whatever stocks or funds you were holding get moved into a taxable account, either a specified account (tokutei koza) or a general account (ippan koza). After that, the dividends and any gains you make lose their NISA tax-free status.
There is an exception for temporary moves you can’t avoid, like a transfer ordered by your employer. Submit a “notification of continued application” (keizoku tekiyo todokedesho) to your brokerage by the day before you leave, and the assets already in your NISA can stay tax-free for a limited time.
Not every departure qualifies, though. It mainly covers cases like an employer-ordered transfer, or a spouse going along with them. Returning home by choice, or leaving to study abroad, usually doesn’t count.
If you do qualify, the tax-free treatment lasts until December 31 of the fifth year after you file the notification. Miss that deadline without filing a “notification of return” (kikoku todokedesho), and your NISA account is closed and the holdings move to a general account.
One catch: even if you keep the NISA account open during a temporary move, you can’t buy anything new or keep up your regular contributions while abroad. You can start buying again once you’re back and have filed the required notification.
And not every brokerage handles continued NISA application in the first place. So even when you tick every box the rules ask for, your provider may simply not offer it — always check.
Finally, don’t skip the paperwork. If you leave without filing and your brokerage later finds out you became a non-resident, you could be taxed retroactively on dividends and other income the NISA account received after you left.
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For stocks and investment funds held in a specified account or a general account, the treatment after you become a non-resident also varies by brokerage.
Selling before you leave is one option, but in some cases you can keep your holdings if you meet certain conditions. Even so, many brokerages restrict new trading while you are abroad, and the range of products you can hold differs from one to another.
Here is how three brokerages handle it, as an illustration:
- Rakuten Securities. You can keep your integrated securities account if you meet set conditions — for example, planning to return to Japan within five years of departure and appointing a standing proxy. Any products you are not allowed to hold while away must be sold beforehand.
- Monex. As a rule, you cannot trade while abroad. But if you complete the required procedures, you may be able to keep holding Japanese stocks, certain investment funds, Japanese government bonds, and similar products. Continuing a NISA account is limited to those on an overseas job transfer, or a spouse accompanying them.
- Mitsubishi UFJ eSmart Securities. Becoming a non-resident generally means closing your account. You can continue only under certain conditions, and only if you plan to return within five years — permanent residence abroad or a permanent return home does not qualify.
On the standing proxy: this can be a relative within the second degree of kinship, or a Japan-based lawyer, judicial scrivener, tax accountant, or administrative scrivener. If your time abroad will exceed five years, or the length is undecided, the brokerage may still ask you to close the account.
As you can see, your options shift a great deal depending on whether you are leaving for good or plan to come back to Japan in a few years.
One last point: don’t decide on the size of your portfolio alone — “small, sell it; large, keep it.” Weigh the whole picture: unrealized gains and losses, the tax you would pay on selling, what you actually hold, the tax rules in the country you are returning to, and how your brokerage handles non-residents.
Sources (brokerage procedures for non-residents):
- Rakuten Securities — https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/support/procedures/non-resident/
- Monex — https://info.monex.co.jp/support/non-resident-procedure.html
- Mitsubishi UFJ eSmart Securities — https://kabu.com/support/procedure/leaving_returning.html
Chapter4 : What to Check and Sort Out Before You Leave
Once your departure is decided, contact your brokerage as early as you can, and confirm how your account will be treated after you become a non-resident and what procedures you need to complete.
Deadlines differ by brokerage, so leaving it until just before you go may not be enough time.
At Monex, for example, if you want to keep a NISA account or specified account open, you need to get in touch by 11 business days before your departure date. From 10 business days out, the continuation procedure for NISA and specified accounts is no longer available.
Here are the points worth checking before you leave:
- Will your NISA account be closed, or can you use continued application?
- Can you keep your specified account or general account?
- Are there products you cannot hold while abroad?
- What are the deadlines for selling or submitting documents?
- Do you need to appoint a standing proxy or an asset manager?
- Do you need to report your overseas address or your country of tax residence?
CRS (the Common Reporting Standard) is another thing to watch.
If there is a change to the country of tax residence you reported to your financial institution, the general rule is that you file a change notification within three months of the change. Your brokerage may ask for your overseas address, taxpayer identification number, and the like, so follow their guidance and have these ready.
Also, if you plan to stay abroad for a year or more, you generally need to file a moving-out notification with your municipality. Shizuoka City, for example, states that residents — including foreign nationals — need to file a moving-out notification when they will be abroad for a year or more.
That said, filing a moving-out notification does not mechanically make you a non-resident under the Income Tax Act. The tax determination is based on the actual facts of your life.
Chapter5 : Leave the Tax Questions to a Professional
The tax on returning home depends on the assets you hold, your residence status, how long you lived in Japan, and where you are returning to.
If you hold substantial assets, watch out for the “exit tax” (kokugai tenshutsu-ji kazei) in particular. Under this system, certain residents leaving Japan are treated as having sold their eligible assets — such as securities worth 100 million yen or more — even if they haven’t, and are taxed on the unrealized gains.
To fall under it, you generally need to meet both of these:
- Your eligible assets total 100 million yen or more when you leave Japan.
- Within the ten years before departure, you had a domicile or residence in Japan for more than five years in total.
For foreign nationals, though, living in Japan for five years or more doesn’t automatically meet the five-year test. Time spent under a residence status listed in Appended Table I of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act — such as intra-company transferee, business manager, professor, researcher, instructor, or student — is excluded from the count. Because the outcome can hinge on your status, it is best not to judge this on your own, even after a long stay.
Two more things to note. First, the “100 million yen” threshold counts securities in your NISA account too, not just your taxable account — and it includes eligible assets with unrealized losses and those held overseas, not only those sitting on a gain. Second, if you meet certain requirements and take steps such as filing for a tax agent (nozei kanrinin) and providing collateral, you may be able to defer the exit tax.
Your home country’s tax rules matter too. When taxation in Japan and your destination overlap, double taxation can sometimes be adjusted through a tax treaty or a foreign tax credit. Since this varies by country and type of income, anyone with substantial assets or stocks sitting on unrealized gains should consult a tax accountant who knows international taxation.
Chapter6: Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the questions people ask most often about their NISA when leaving Japan.
Q1: Can I keep my NISA after I return home?
If you become a non-resident of Japan — for example, by returning to your home country for good — you generally cannot keep a NISA. The account is closed, and your holdings are moved to a taxable account, such as a specified account or a general account.
For a temporary departure, such as a transfer ordered by your employer, it is a different story: if you submit a notification of continued application before you leave, you may be able to keep the tax-free treatment on your existing assets for a set period. Even then, you cannot make new purchases or continue contributions while abroad. And some financial institutions do not support continued application at all, so check with your brokerage before you go.
Q2: What happens to the investment funds and stocks I hold?
Whether you can keep them after leaving depends on your brokerage and the products. Some brokerages let you keep your account under certain conditions, while others require you to close it if you are returning home for good or moving abroad permanently. Even if you can keep the account, new purchases and sales may be restricted while you are away.
Whether to sell or hold is not a decision you can make on the amount alone. Weigh the types of products you hold, your unrealized gains and losses, the tax on selling, and the tax system in the country you are returning to.
Q3: What should I do before I leave?
First, contact the brokerage where you hold your account and confirm how your NISA and taxable accounts will be treated after departure, which products you can keep, what documents to submit, and the procedure deadlines.
Some brokerages require you to start the process several weeks before your departure date. You may also need to appoint a standing proxy or file CRS-related notifications, so give yourself plenty of time.
If your stocks, investment funds, or other holdings are of high value, you also need to check the exit tax. For foreign nationals in particular, the way the five-year requirement is calculated differs by residence status, so it is worth consulting a tax accountant who knows international taxation.
Chapter7: Before You Go: The Questions to Ask
Once you leave Japan and become a non-resident, the treatment of your NISA and brokerage accounts changes significantly — which is why sorting out your NISA when leaving Japan is worth doing early, not at the last minute.
For a permanent return home, your NISA account is generally closed, and your holdings move to a specified account, a general account, or the like. For a temporary overseas posting ordered by your employer, you may be able to keep the tax-free treatment — but you cannot make new NISA purchases while abroad.
Taxable accounts vary too: the conditions for keeping an account open, and the products you can hold, differ by brokerage. Some brokerages will not let you keep an account for a permanent return home, so it pays to check early.
Here are the questions worth asking your brokerage and a professional before you leave:
Ask your brokerage:
- For a permanent return, when exactly will my NISA account be closed?
- Which account do the holdings paid out from my NISA move into?
- Can I keep my specified or general account after I leave?
- Are there products I cannot hold while abroad?
- What are the deadlines for selling and for submitting documents?
- Do I need to appoint a standing proxy or an asset manager?
Ask a tax accountant:
- From what point do I become a non-resident?
- How does my tax differ if I sell before returning versus holding through the move?
- Do my residence status and time in Japan count toward the exit tax’s five-year requirement?
- Could my eligible assets, including my NISA, reach 100 million yen and bring me under the exit tax?
After you have left, your options for some procedures may be limited. If you contact your brokerage as soon as your departure date is set — and check with a tax accountant where needed — you can avoid a last-minute scramble to sell assets you care about.
*This article is for general information only and is not individual financial or tax advice. Information is accurate as of September 2026, but tax rules and brokerage policies change regularly. Terms and eligibility also depend on the brokerage, the product, and your own situation, so always check the latest details with your brokerage, the tax authorities, or a tax professional before making a decision.
