Head to head
Phuket vs Tokyo.
Phuket leaves about $187K more of a $1M income in hand each year than Tokyo, on the Patrician.ch 2026 model. 🇹🇭 Thailand against 🇯🇵 Japan, compared on tax, residence, cost and the life.
In short, current to October 2026
- On $1,000,000 of income, Phuket takes an effective 33% and Tokyo takes 52%, so Phuket leaves about $187K more in hand each year on the Patrician.ch 2026 model.
- On a capital gain realized after residence begins, Phuket charges 35% and Tokyo charges 20%. On a $5,000,000 event that is a difference of about $734K.
- Thailand operates a special regime for arriving foreigners: Long-Term Resident visa with a 17% flat tax on employment income for highly skilled professionals, and a full exemption on foreign income for the qualifying LTR categories. Outside that visa, orders Por 161 and 162 of 2566 have taxed foreign income at 5% to 35% whenever a resident of 180 days or more brings it in, from 1 January 2024, with income earned before 2024 still exempt. A 2 year remittance exemption has been drafted since mid 2025 but is not law until it appears in the Royal Gazette. Gains on shares sold on the Stock Exchange of Thailand are exempt. Tokyo is modeled with none.
- Inheritance, what a child pays: 5% above THB 100M in Phuket, up to 55% in Tokyo.
- Route in: Phuket by Residence by investment, Remote work visa. Tokyo by Founder & talent.
- Cost of the life is 50 in Phuket against 84 in Tokyo on the Patrician.ch index where Zurich is 100, and safety 6 against 10 of 10. Both are Patrician.ch editorial indices scored by us, not published statistics.
Source: the Patrician.ch board, an original ranking of 100 residence addresses across 47 countries and territories. Tax rates, thresholds and routes are sourced. Cost, safety, schools, sun and beauty are Patrician.ch editorial indices. Figures current to October 2026. Updated . Cite as: Patrician.ch, Phuket vs Tokyo: tax, residence and cost 2026, patrician.ch/compare/phuket-vs-tokyo/, October 2026.
