Would your household gain or lose from a basic income?
Pick your family, income, pension and public assistance. Using the same assumptions as our essay on Heizo Takenaka’s ¥70,000-a-month plan, it works out how much your household would gain or lose each month. Everything is calculated on this device and nothing is sent anywhere.
For households in Japan: it uses Japan’s FY2026 child allowance, pension and public assistance figures, in yen.
Your result (monthly, before tax rises)
Big gain¥100,000 or more a month better off
+¥260,000 a month
+¥3,120,000 a year
Depending on the assumptions: +¥180,000 to +¥260,000 a month
Breakdown (monthly)
- Basic incomeAdults: 2 × ¥70,000; children: 2 × ¥70,000
- +¥280,000
- Child allowance ends
- −¥20,000
- Net change
- +¥260,000
Benefits now (monthly): Child allowance ¥20,000
Change the assumptions
Pick one to see how the result changes. “Default” is the essay’s middle case, close to what Takenaka said in his interview.
For the country: At Takenaka’s ¥70,000 that is about ¥103.2 trillion a year, about 84% of the ¥122.3 trillion general account. Even all ¥63.7 trillion of pensions would leave it about ¥40 trillion short.
These results are before any tax rise to pay for it. A tax rise would lower every household’s result by that much.
The essay’s five households
The five households from the essay, worked out with this calculator (monthly, before any tax rise). Tap a name to load it.
| Household | Default | Depending on the assumptions |
|---|---|---|
| Single, 20s, ¥3m a year | +¥70,000 | +¥70,000 |
| Family of four, ¥5m a year | +¥260,000 | +¥180,000 to +¥260,000 |
| Retired couple (former employee) | −¥1,216 | +¥140,000 to −¥97,279 |
| Single, on public assistance (Tokyo 23 wards) | ±¥0 | ±¥0 to −¥60,920 |
| Family of four, ¥10m a year | −¥20,000 | +¥260,000 to −¥20,000 |
Assumptions
- ¥70,000 a month per person, children included, as on the TV panel. The case where children get Yutaka Harada’s ¥30,000 is included in the range. You can also pick ¥30,000, ¥50,000 or ¥100,000.
- The child allowance is replaced by basic income. Today’s amounts follow the FY2026 rules: ¥15,000 a month under 3, ¥10,000 from 3 to high-school age, and ¥30,000 from the third child, with no income limit. To find the third child, children up to the March after they turn 22 whom the parents support are counted from the eldest.
- Pensions three ways: (A) kept, with basic income on top; (B) only the basic pension replaced, the Employees’ Pension top-up kept (default); (C) replaced entirely. The full National Pension is ¥70,608 a month; the model couple gets ¥237,279, of which ¥141,216 is two basic pensions.
- Public assistance two ways: (A) it tops up whatever basic income and remaining pensions do not cover (default); (B) abolished. Medical care and other non-cash assistance are left out.
- No income threshold or amount for the clawback has been given, so for households earning ¥10 million or more we show both ends: nothing paid back and everything paid back (default: everything).
- Taxes, social insurance contributions and earnings stay the same. Results are monthly; the yearly figure is 12 times that.
- These results are before any tax rise to pay for it. A tax rise would lower every household’s result by that much.
Sources
- ¥70,000 a month for everyone: who gains and who loses? Heizo Takenaka’s basic income plan, worked out for five households
- Children and Families Agency — Guide to the child allowance (amounts and how the third child is counted; in Japanese)
- Children and Families Agency — The child allowance expansion from October 2024 (in Japanese)
- Japan Pension Service — Pension amounts from April 2026 (full National Pension, model couple; in Japanese)
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — How public assistance living-cost standards are calculated (Oct 2026; PDF, in Japanese)
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — The public assistance system (housing and medical assistance; in Japanese)
- Statistics Bureau of Japan — Population Estimates, October 2026 report (PDF, in Japanese)
- Ministry of Finance — Explanation of the FY2026 budget and FILP plan (in Japanese)
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — Social security benefits and burdens, FY2026 budget basis (PDF, in Japanese)
- Yutaka Harada, Basic Income: Can the State Solve Poverty? (Chūkō Shinsho, 2015; book record, in Japanese)
- J-CAST News — interview with Heizo Takenaka on basic income (10 Oct 2020, in Japanese)