Furusato no zei "tax rebate for stuff" in Japan - some key points for expats (TL;DR: yes, YOU can do it - don't need to be a citizen / born somewhere!)

So I wanted to do a small write up somewhere on this subject, because there's a dearth of information for foreigners living in Japan, and it's a "benefit" that more people should be taking advantage of - but because most of it is in Japanese, and in such convoluted context that even the Japanese themselves do not completely understand it, it goes completely ignored by most expats. Those that do use it somehow don't spend enough time describing it to others, so most people have a very vague idea.

1. What is "furusatonozei"?
   It's a tax rebate scheme created some years back by the Japanese government to encourage people to redirect part of their taxes (residential and income) to their "furusato", i.e. a city they have ancestral (or other) ties to.

2. Can I contrubute? I wasn't born in Japan and I have no "furusato".
   Yes! Most people, including the Japanese, misunderstand the system to mean that only a "local" is eligible, and that, to some "birth" city or something. This is false. Anyone paying income and resident tax in Japan is eligible. Foreigners, locals, whatever - as long as you are a legal resident paying tax, you can do this.

3. Why do I even care?
   This is where things get interesting, and here's a continuation of part #1. When the system was originally introduced, it had as its goal a redistribution of taxes from the very wealthy municipalities with tax surpluses and high populations of taxpayers (i.e. Tokyo) to ones that are severely disadvantaged by an exodus of working populations, as is the case in most rural locations in Japan. So in the original system, people would voluntarily send their taxes to these locations, and these locations would send a thank-you gift in return, which usually ended up being some local meat, fish, fruits, whatever. It was an interesting system, but a curiosity at best, as most people couldn't be bothered to go through the hassle of paying for something and getting an unknown gift back - even though ultimately, the contribution was almost 100% tax deductible, and they basically ended up with a free "item". So, Japan being the capitalist economy that it is, the market went into overdrive and became a completely structured marketplace where you very clearly know what it is that you will get with respect to the "donation" that you will do. There are a few sites, all Japanese-only, with the largest one, http://furusato-tax.jp carrying something around twenty MILLION items available through this system.

4. What can I get?
   Another misconception - most people believe it's fruits, vegetables and other perishables. While that's ONE piece of what's available, the system has grown to encompass literally anything - travel packages, onsen tickets, food, TVs, cameras, knives, even car rentals and so on. Basically, the split is something like this: a third, I'd say, is "local" items (perishables like fruits and meats and non-perishables like knives from Seki, etc), a third is "imported" item (champagnes, wines from France, whiskey from Scotland, random other items) and a third are non-item things (diving trips, diving certificates, hotel rooms, domestic airline tickets, etc).

5. Is it really free?
   Essentially, yes. There's a 2,000 yen one-time "admin" fee you will pay, and the rest of your "donation" will be split as follows. There are two methods - a "simplified" one, which will simply take your "donation", split it in 10 payments, and they will be automatically deducted from your monthly residential tax contribution from the following tax year. If you don't like this and prefer immediate cash, then you submit a "kakutei-shinkoku" (a year end tax adjustment), and this will reflect against your tax due when the calculation is done around April; you will get the income tax piece back immediately, and the residential tax (only a smaller piece) will still be deducted monthly. Ultimately, you will get 100% of your contribution back as long as you do not exceed your annual maximum, which most of these websites will happily estimate for you. Just a really rough guideline, your annual maximum is about 3% of your gross declared pay (but please do the proper calculation if you're planning on maximising it).

6. When's the deadline?
   It runs on a calendar year, so you have until December 31 of this year to still take advantage of it. If cameras, chairs, knives and so on don't strike your fancy, some cities have instituted point schemes where you buy that city's points, and in 2018, you can decide what you want to use these points for. So there's literally no excuse to NOT take advantage of it this year. Especially since your refund would be sometime in May or so, so you're only fronting the cash for a few months. Hell, you could even ask your credit card company to charge in pieces, so if you're really broke, you'd pay a bit of interest, but still end up with "free" items worth around 30% of the cash you're fronting (that's the usual value of items in this system).

Happy to answer questions.