Joint accounts

[needhelp]

Does anybody know how the Japanese govt. taxes joint accounts in foreign banks when one of the parties dies? For example, a joint USA bank account of US husband and Japanese wife, both resident in Japan, and then one or the other dies? Is the whole amount, or perhaps half then suddenly considered an inheritance, in which case the surviving party might end up inheriting money that it has actually earned itself....

[YouMeWeThem]

My understanding is you'd have to determine the proportions of Spouse A and Spouse B's holdings in the account, which is why the general wisdom is to not use joint accounts.

[Tkydon]

Yes, as YouMeWeThem said, they will determine by inputs how much of the balance was attributed to each party, and the portion attributed to the deceased party will be included in the Estate for the calculation of Inheritance Tax.
If they didn't contribute anything, then 0%.
If they were the only contributor, then 100%.
or anything in between.
Better to keep separate accounts for clarity.

If the total value of the estate is less than Y30M + Y6M x No. of Statutory Heirs, then no inheritance tax will be due.
The calculations then get a little complicated.
See
https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Inheritance_tax