- October 27, 2026
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As the year winds down, foreign residents using NISA may be thinking: I still have this year’s tax-free allowance left. Your NISA allowance year end is worth a quick look before December is out.
The annual NISA limit is set per calendar year, and whatever you don’t use can’t be carried over. That doesn’t mean you should scramble in December to fill every last bit of it.
What matters is to first check how much allowance is left and the year-end trading deadline, then decide whether to invest more — within spare funds, after covering living costs.
In this guide, certified financial planner Masamichi Takayanagi covers why the timing matters, how to check your remaining allowance, year-end settlement dates, next year’s contributions, and what to confirm if you’re planning to return home.
For how NISA works and how to open an account, see our separate guides.
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: Why Year End Matters
The annual NISA investment limit is managed on a calendar-year basis, and any amount you leave unused can’t be added to the next year’s limit.
For NISA holders aged 18 and over, as of 2026, the annual limits are:
- Tsumitate (accumulation) quota: 1.2 million yen a year
- Growth quota: 2.4 million yen a year
- Total: 3.6 million yen a year
You can use both quotas together.
Say you use only 800,000 yen of this year’s Tsumitate quota. The leftover 400,000 yen does not roll into next year to make it 1.6 million yen — next year’s limit stays 1.2 million yen. The same goes for the Growth quota: leave some unused, and next year’s cap is still 2.4 million yen.
Separately from the annual limit, NISA has a lifetime tax-free holding limit of 18 million yen. Of this, up to 12 million yen can be used in the Growth quota.
When you sell a product in your NISA account, the tax-free holding limit frees up again from the following year, by the book value — the amount you originally paid for it. But selling does not revive the annual allowance you’ve already used this year.
Note that from January 2027, the age requirement for the Tsumitate quota is being revised, so those aged 0 to 17 will be able to use it within certain limits. Rules can change, so check the latest details on official sites such as the Financial Services Agency.
Chapter2 : Check Your Own “Remaining Allowance”
Before you think about investing more before year end, first check how much you’ve invested this year and how much of your allowance is left.
At most brokerages, you can see how much of your Tsumitate and Growth quotas you’ve used from the NISA menu or your account page after logging in.
Three things to look at:
- Check how much of your Tsumitate quota is left.
- Check how much of your Growth quota is left.
- Check any scheduled contributions set to buy before year end.
One thing to watch: even if you’ve set up regular contributions, how the not-yet-settled amounts are displayed differs from brokerage to brokerage.
The “remaining allowance” shown on screen isn’t always money you can put straight into more investments. Checking it together with the contributions scheduled for December gives you a clearer picture of what you can actually use this year.
If you’re unsure about a Japanese-language screen, your brokerage’s help pages or customer support can be a good resource.
Chapter3 : Your NISA Allowance Year End: Watch the Settlement Date
The thing to watch most closely at year end is this: don’t go by the order date or the trade confirmation date alone.
To use a given year’s NISA allowance, the product’s settlement date generally needs to fall on or before December 31.
The trade date is the day the buy or sell goes through; the settlement date is the day the money and the product actually change hands. There can be a gap of a few days between the two.
Say you place an order in late December and it executes within the year. If the settlement date falls in the next year, the transaction uses next year’s NISA allowance, not this year’s.
What’s more, the number of days needed isn’t the same for every product. Domestic stocks, foreign stocks, and investment funds all have different settlement timelines, and investment funds can have different cutoffs from one fund to the next. For regular contributions, too, the deadline can vary with the payment method — credit card, or direct debit from your brokerage account.
So don’t assume that buying by the last business day of December will do. If you want to use this year’s allowance, check your financial institution’s published year-end and New Year trading schedule, or its year-end NISA cutoff, as early as you can.
Even if you have allowance left, there’s no rule that you have to use it all.
The 1.2 million yen and 2.4 million yen figures aren’t targets you must invest up to. They’re the annual ceilings on how much you can invest tax-free.
Moving living costs, or money you’ll need soon, into investments just because you don’t want to lose the allowance is best avoided. The products you invest in can fall in value, and selling when you happen to need the money can lock in a loss.
The basics come first: secure a cushion for sudden expenses, and set aside money you plan to use within the next few years.
If you’re putting a winter bonus into NISA, think of it the same way — not “the bonus came in, so I’ll invest it,” but “is this spare money I have no near-term plans for?”
There’s no one right answer, either, on whether to invest a lump sum at year end or keep up contributions into next year and beyond. Decide based on your investment horizon, your risk tolerance, and your household situation.
If you’re unsure about a particular decision, one option is to talk to someone like a financial planner who isn’t working from the premise of selling you a specific product.
Chapter5 : Looking Ahead to Next Year: The Reset and Your Contributions
When the new year arrives, a fresh annual allowance becomes available.
For those aged 18 and over, the 2027 limits are the same: 1.2 million yen a year in the Tsumitate quota and 2.4 million yen in the Growth quota.
Year end is a chance to look not only at this year’s remaining allowance, but at next year’s contribution settings.
For example, spreading the 1.2 million yen Tsumitate quota evenly across twelve months works out to 100,000 yen a month, in simple terms. But using the full 1.2 million isn’t the goal — set an amount that fits your income and your monthly spending.
Some brokerages let you use a “bonus-month setting” to raise your contribution in certain months only. With credit-card contributions, on the other hand, the setup and the caps can differ, so check the rules at the institution you use.
Also, if you sold holdings in the previous year, the tax-free holding limit frees up again from the following year, by the book value of those products.
The key is not to confuse the two: the annual investment limit and the lifetime tax-free holding limit are separate systems.
Chapter6 : A Note for Those Planning to Return Home
If you’re planning a permanent return to your home country or a long stay abroad in the near future, check how things are handled after you leave — before you use more NISA allowance at year end.
NISA is a system for residents of Japan. If you leave and become a non-resident, as a rule you cannot keep using your NISA account as before.
That said, if you leave temporarily for an “unavoidable reason” — such as an employer’s order to transfer overseas — you may be able to keep the tax-free treatment on the products held in your NISA, by submitting a “notification of continued application” to your financial institution by the day before you leave.
The treatment can continue until December 31 of the year that includes the day five years after you submit the notification. During that time abroad, though, you cannot buy new products in the NISA account.
A voluntary move, on the other hand — studying abroad or returning home by choice — generally does not qualify for this exception. And some brokerages don’t handle continued application at all.
If you already know you’ll be returning, read our guide on NISA when leaving Japan as well, and contact the institution you use as early as you can.
Related Post
Chapter7 : Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the questions people ask most often about using their NISA allowance before year end.
Q1: Can I carry over unused NISA allowance to next year?
No — you can’t carry over unused annual allowance. If you used 800,000 yen of this year’s Tsumitate quota and had 400,000 yen left, next year’s limit isn’t 1.6 million yen; you simply get a fresh 1.2 million yen annual allowance. What can be reused from the following year, if you sold a product, is the “lifetime tax-free holding limit” by the book value of what you sold. That’s a separate mechanism from carrying over unused annual allowance.
Q2: Does a last-minute year-end purchase still count toward this year?
Not necessarily — just placing or executing the order within the year doesn’t make it this year’s allowance. As a rule, the settlement date needs to be on or before December 31. If it falls in the next year, the purchase uses next year’s annual allowance. The last order date of the year differs for domestic stocks, foreign stocks, investment funds, and so on, so check the year-end schedule published by your brokerage.
Q3: Do I have to use up the whole allowance?
No, you don’t. The annual NISA allowance is a ceiling on how much you can invest tax-free. Rather than investing your emergency cushion or money you’ll need within a few years, decide within your spare funds and in line with a long-term plan. Don’t make using the allowance the goal in itself — put your household finances and future plans first. If you’re unsure, consider talking to a professional such as a financial planner.
Chapter8 : In Closing
The annual NISA investment limit is managed per calendar year, and whatever you don’t use can’t be carried over to the next year.
If you’re considering investing more at year end, first check your remaining Tsumitate and Growth quotas on your brokerage’s screen, and factor in any contributions scheduled before the year is out.
Whether you can use this year’s allowance comes down to the settlement date — not the order date or the trade date. Since cutoffs differ by product and by institution, check early rather than at the last minute.
That said, using up the annual allowance isn’t the goal in itself. The basics are to secure your emergency cushion and near-term expenses, and to decide within your spare funds.
For foreign residents planning to return home, the treatment of NISA after you become a non-resident needs attention too. Rather than looking only at this year’s remaining allowance, think about next year’s contributions and your future living plans, and find the approach that fits you.
*This article is for general information only and is not individual financial or tax advice, nor a recommendation to buy any specific product. Information is accurate as of October 2026, but NISA rules and figures like the annual and lifetime limits change regularly, and each brokerage sets its own year-end trading deadlines. What’s right for you also depends on your income, your plans, and your own circumstances, so always check the details with your financial institution, and consider speaking with a financial planner before making decisions.
