UI/UX & Product Designer Day Rate Calculator: Japan 2026

Your tax treatment depends on your operating structure. Haken/agency: a dispatch agency pays you like a regular employee, deducting national income tax, the 2.1% reconstruction surtax, resident tax, and full shakai hoken (health, nursing care, pension, employment insurance) after its fee comes off the top. Kojin jigyounushi (sole proprietor): you fund your own National Pension and National Health Insurance instead of employer-side shakai hoken, and can deduct real business expenses plus the blue-return deduction before tax applies. The calculator above shows both side by side.

Retention rates vary by structure and rate. Sole proprietors typically retain more at higher rates thanks to deductible business expenses and the blue-return deduction, though National Health Insurance premiums are capped, which favours high earners further. Haken/agency contractors retain less since full shakai hoken applies the same way it would for a permanent employee, on top of the agency's own fee.

Kojin jigyounushi generally nets more once your rate comfortably clears National Health Insurance and National Pension contributions, but you take on your own tax filing (kakutei shinkoku) and lose the employment protections a haken/agency dispatch contract provides. Haken/agency is simpler and bundles shakai hoken the way a permanent job would, at the cost of a lower net rate.

At ¥3580/hour over 1,760 billable hours a year (220 billable days x 8 hours/day), the gross annual contract income is ¥6.3M. This is a 3% gross premium over the UI/UX & Product Designer permanent salary median of ¥6.1M/year. The premium compensates contractors for self-funded shakai hoken, resident tax timing, holiday pay, and business overheads a permanent employer covers on an employee's behalf.