By when must you file for the refund? (the 5-year deadline)

There are two deadlines, and they attach to two different procedures. They get mixed up often, so here they are side by side.

Telling the two apart

Deadline	Procedure	Counted from
2 years	Claiming the lump-sum	the date you left Japan
5 years	Filing for the income tax refund	the date the lump-sum was paid

This article is about the second one — the five-year deadline for filing the refund. If you have already received your lump-sum (so the first deadline is behind you), this is where you start.

Why confusing them matters

The order is claim → payment → refund filing, so the five years always end later than the two. The trap is for someone who has not yet claimed the lump-sum at all and reads the five-year figure as time in hand. If the lump-sum has not been paid, the five years have not even started, and the deadline actually running is the two-year claim deadline.

What happens after five years?

Once the deadline passes there is no way left to reclaim the withheld tax. Working out the exact start date (when the lump-sum counts as "received", for instance) depends on the individual case, so if you think the deadline is close, get in touch first rather than waiting to work it out.

This article only explains that the deadlines exist and what each is counted from. Your exact payment date and remaining time need an individual check against your payment decision notice.