Attachment of Wages in Japan｜Reaching an Individual Debtor’s Salary at His Employer

You hold a judgment against an individual in Japan and nothing is paid. An individual has no trade receivables, and a bank account is commonly emptied before it can be reached. What remains, and what is often the most dependable route, is attachment of the salary the debtor earns from his employer. Japanese law treats this as a form of execution against claims, and it limits how much of a salary may be taken. What follows explains the procedure, the limits and the practical realities, under Japanese law.

Contents

What is attached, and who the third-party obligor is
How the procedure runs
How much of the salary may be taken
Retirement allowances and bonuses
Finding the employer
Practical points
In closing
How to contact us

What is attached, and who the third-party obligor is

What is seized is not cash in the debtor’s hands but the debtor’s claim to remuneration against his employer. In the procedure the employer is the third-party obligor (daisan-saimusha). From the moment the attachment order is served on the employer, the employer may no longer pay the attached portion to the debtor and must pay it to the creditor instead. Everything therefore turns on identifying the employer correctly and on the debtor actually being in employment when the order is served.

How the procedure runs

Obtain an enforceable title — a final judgment, a settlement record, a demand for payment, a notarial deed containing the debtor’s statement submitting to compulsory execution, or a family court conciliation record.
Identify the employer — the application must state the employer’s name and address. The court will not investigate this for you.
Apply for an attachment order against the claim, to the District Court for the debtor’s address. The filing fee is 4,000 yen, with postal charges paid in advance.
The order issues without the debtor being heard and is served first on the employer and then on the debtor.
Collection — for ordinary claims the creditor may collect one week after service on the debtor, but for wages and other claims containing an exempt portion the waiting period is four weeks. The creditor then demands payment from the employer directly.
Notice requiring a statement — if applied for at the same time, the court clerk requires the employer to state, within two weeks of service, whether the debtor is employed there, what he is paid, and whether other attachments are in place. This is what tells you whether the attachment has struck anything.

How much of the salary may be taken

A salary may not be attached in full. As a rule three-quarters of the net sum payable — that is, after income tax, resident tax and social insurance contributions — is exempt, so that the creditor reaches one quarter.

Higher earnings are treated differently. Where that three-quarters exceeds the figure fixed by cabinet order (330,000 yen where the salary is paid monthly), only that figure is protected and the whole of the excess may be attached. Where the claim being enforced arises from a duty of support — child maintenance or marital expenses, for example — the exempt portion falls to one half, so that half of the net salary may be taken. The court may also vary the scope of the exemption on the application of either party, having regard to the circumstances of both.

Retirement allowances and bonuses

A bonus is part of the claim to remuneration and is caught by the same order, so the sums recovered in a bonus month are usually larger. A retirement allowance may likewise be attached, three-quarters of the sum payable being exempt and one quarter available to the creditor. If the debtor leaves his post after the attachment, the retirement allowance arising from that departure falls within the order already made, and in practice this often yields the single largest recovery in the case.

Finding the employer

Where the debtor’s employer is unknown, the procedure for obtaining information from third parties allows the court to obtain employment information from municipalities (which administer the special collection of resident tax) and from the Japan Pension Service and comparable bodies (which hold employees’ pension insurance records). As regards salary information, however, this procedure is open only to two classes of creditor: those holding a claim arising from a duty of support, such as child maintenance, and those holding a claim in damages for injury to life or body. It must also be preceded by the property disclosure procedure and applied for within three years of it. An ordinary trade or loan creditor cannot use this route and must work instead from old business cards, contracts, remittance records and enquiry agents’ reports.

Practical points

First, resignation defeats the attachment. The order binds that employer alone; once the debtor leaves, nothing further can be collected, and a new employer must be traced and a fresh application made. Conversely, for as long as the debtor stays, the order continues to bite on each month’s salary as it falls due, and the creditor may collect month after month until the debt is satisfied in full. That continuing effect is the great strength of this remedy.

Second, the employer will inevitably learn of the debt. That is a source of practical pressure, but it may also worsen the debtor’s position at work or prompt him to resign. Dismissal founded on the attachment alone would seldom be regarded in Japan as resting on proper grounds, yet resignations do follow. Consider first whether an instalment settlement can be negotiated.

Third, the employer carries an administrative burden, deducting and remitting each month. Explaining its legal obligations and the mechanics clearly, both in the notice requiring a statement and afterwards, is what secures smooth compliance.

In closing

The value of a wage attachment depends on identifying the employer and on acting in time. Begun while the debtor is still in post, it produces steady monthly recoveries; left too late, it strikes nothing and the costs are lost. The investigation of an individual debtor’s assets and the application itself can be conducted from abroad by email and video conference, and we are equally glad to work through the creditor’s own counsel.

How to contact us

Telephone 03-6435-8418 within Japan, or +81-3-6435-8418 from overseas. Lines are open from 08:00 to 24:00 Japan time, including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Enquiries are also received at any hour through the form on this site.

M&A Partners Law Office LPC　Katsuhiro Tsuchiya, Representative Attorney-at-Law (Tokyo Bar Association, Registration No. 26775)　17F Mori Trust Shiroyama Trust Tower, 4-3-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

This article is a general explanation based on the laws and practice of Japan as at August 2026 (Reiwa 8). The outcome of any particular matter depends on its own facts, and no specific result is guaranteed.

Contents