What would a basic income cost in Japan?
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Total cost per year
44.2 trillion yen
about 295 billion US dollars
123 million people × ¥30,000 a month × 12 months
Compared with
- National general-account budget (spending) (FY2026)36.1%
- Social security spending in the budget (FY2026)113%
- Tax revenue (taxes and stamp revenue) (FY2026)52.8%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)6.7%
Japan in numbers
Japan has a population of 123 million (2026) and a GDP of 664 trillion yen (about 4.44 trillion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone ¥30,000 a month would cost 44.2 trillion yen a year (about 295 billion US dollars), or 6.7% of GDP. That equals 36.1% of the national general-account budget, 113% of its social security spending and 52.8% of tax revenue (FY2026).
Children only (under 15: 13.3 million) would cost 4.77 trillion yen a year (0.72% of GDP); adults only (20 and over: 104 million), 37.5 trillion yen (5.6%).
Default amount: ¥30,000 a month is a round figure chosen by the editors for this calculator. For comparison, the World Bank's poverty line of $3.00 a day is about ¥9,400 a month here; paying that to everyone would cost 2.1% of GDP.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- GDP
- World Bank, World Development Indicators: GDP in current local currency units (NY.GDP.MKTP.CN), 2025. Updated 8 Oct 2026. India and Egypt report on a fiscal-year basis
- World Bank: GDP in current local currency (NY.GDP.MKTP.CN) and in current US dollars (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD), 2025
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.