Japan Winery Compliance Reporting Guide: Liquor Tax, e-Tax and Wine Label Rules

Japan winery reporting calendar at a glance

For a producing winery, the compliance calendar is built around two different NTA rhythms: a tax return tied to monthly removals and an annual quantity-and-inventory report tied to Japan's April 1 through March 31 fiscal reporting year. Wineries with licensed selling or retail activity can have additional April 30 reports.^[1][2][3]

Do not use this table as a substitute for license-specific review. A winery can have multiple premises, different selling arrangements, temporary retail privileges, exports, untaxed transfers, or other facts that add procedures. The responsible Tax Office and liquor tax officer remain the authority for the winery's exact scope.

1. Monthly liquor tax return: what a winery files after removals

The National Tax Agency's E1-35 procedure applies to liquor manufacturers. The return is due by the last day of the month following a month in which liquor was removed from the manufacturing premises, returned, or another relevant event occurred. The NTA's fruit-wine manufacturing guide also states that a return is not required for a month with no removals.^[1][5]

Return deadline and payment deadline are different

For ordinary removals, the tax return is generally due by the end of the following month, while the liquor tax shown on that return is generally payable by the end of the second month after the month of removal. For example, an ordinary taxable removal during May produces a return deadline at the end of June and a payment deadline at the end of July.^[5]

The standard wine tax rate in August 2026

As of August 5, 2026, ordinary non-sparkling fruit wine classified as brewed liquor is taxed at a standard rate of JPY 100,000 per kiloliter. At that standard rate, 750 mL corresponds to JPY 75 of liquor tax before any producer-specific relief or other applicable adjustment.^[6]

October 1, 2026 matters for low-alcohol sparkling products

Do not apply the JPY 100,000-per-kiloliter fruit-wine rate blindly to every sparkling wine. Through September 30, 2026, fruit wine that falls into the separate "other sparkling liquor" classification can be taxed at JPY 80,000 per kiloliter when the applicable classification conditions are met. From October 1, 2026, the other-sparkling-liquor rate becomes JPY 100,000 per kiloliter, and the relevant alcohol threshold changes from under 10% to under 11%.^[6][7]

The NTA fruit-wine guide describes the sparkling classification in part by alcohol content and carbon-dioxide pressure. Because tax classification can turn on product characteristics, confirm the classification of low-alcohol sparkling wine rather than inferring it from a marketing description such as "sparkling wine."^[5]

2. Annual manufacture, removal and inventory report: due April 30

The NTA's E1-36 procedure covers the 酒類の製成及び移出の数量等申告書, the report of liquor manufactured and removed, including the relevant fiscal-year quantities and the March 31 amount held at the premises. It applies to liquor manufacturers and is due by the last day of April in the following fiscal year.^[2]

This is the key correction to the source material. Japan once required these manufacture, removal and ending-inventory quantities every month. An NTA summary of the 2003 Liquor Tax Act amendments expressly explains that the filing frequency was reduced from 12 monthly reports to one annual report covering April 1 through March 31, due by the following April 30.^[8]

What has to reconcile

The NTA's fruit-wine guidance expects winery records to support the flow from raw-material receipts through production, storage and removal. The annual report therefore should not be built as a stand-alone spreadsheet exercise. The year-end quantities need to reconcile with the manufacturing records kept at the premises and with the monthly removals that drove liquor-tax returns during the year.^[5][9]

Practical year-end close

1. Freeze the reporting period at March 31 and confirm the inventory held at each manufacturing premises.
2. Reconcile annual manufactured quantities to batch and production records.
3. Reconcile removals to shipment and tax-return records, including any untaxed or exempt movements handled under separate procedures.
4. Investigate losses, spoilage, returns, corrections or unexplained quantity differences before filing.
5. Create and review the E1-36 filing in e-Tax software or prepare the official paper form.
6. Submit by April 30 and retain the filing evidence with the winery's compliance records.

The NTA provides official instructions for the report and the related removal-quantity detail statement from the E1-36 procedure page.^[2]

3. Additional April 30 reports if the winery is also a licensed seller or retailer

A winery's manufacturing obligations and its selling obligations are not the same thing. If the business holds a liquor sales business license, the NTA's E1-37 procedure requires a 酒類の販売数量等報告書, or liquor sales quantity report, by April 30 after the reporting fiscal year. The NTA states that the report covers annual sales quantities and the amount of liquor held at March 31.^[3][10]

Retailers have another annual report covering implementation of the rules intended to prevent drinking by people under 20. The NTA explicitly includes manufacturers and wholesalers that conduct retail sales within the target population for this report.^[4]

4. Records a Japanese winery must keep

Japan's reporting system depends on statutory winery records. NTA guidance under Liquor Tax Act Article 46 requires liquor manufacturers to keep records relating to manufacture, storage and sales. The NTA fruit-wine guide states that those books must be kept at each manufacturing premises and preserved for seven years after the books are closed.^[9][5]

The official fruit-wine guidance identifies operational records that include, as applicable:

• raw-material receipts and issues, including dates, product or grape identity, quantities and counterparties;
• production records tied to individual charges or batches and the vessels used;
• measurements required at specified production stages, including alcohol and other composition measurements;
• manufactured wine quantities and subsequent movements;
• storage and removals from the manufacturing premises;
• loss, spoilage and other events that affect accountable quantities.

The NTA does not require a single proprietary software format for those records. Its fruit-wine guide says a manufacturer can use its own record format if all required information is covered. That makes system design important: the winery's everyday cellar and inventory records should be able to reproduce the quantities later reported to the NTA.^[5]

5. Event-driven notices can interrupt the monthly and annual calendar

Monthly and annual returns are only the baseline. The NTA also requires filings when specific events occur. These matter because a winery can be fully up to date on its April 30 report and still miss an event-driven notice.

Use the current NTA liquor-tax procedures index when an unusual event occurs. It is safer than trying to force an exceptional movement into the next routine annual report.

6. How Japanese wineries file these reports with e-Tax

Electronic filing is available, but the current official procedure is more specific than simply saying "Japan has an API." E1-35, E1-36 and E1-37 each state that the relevant return or report can be created and submitted from a computer using e-Tax software. Those same NTA pages still permit paper preparation and submission, so paper has not been universally abolished for these winery procedures.^[1][2][3]

Documented e-Tax workflow

For the annual sales reports, the NTA publishes a particularly clear electronic workflow:

1. Obtain the e-Tax user identification required for the filing workflow.
2. Obtain and register an eligible electronic certificate where the procedure requires it.
3. Use e-Tax software to create the report data.
4. Apply the electronic signature as required.
5. Transmit the filing through e-Tax.
6. Check the transmission result and receipt information in e-Tax.

The NTA also provides a sales-report preparation helper. It can take store-list and liquor-sales data managed in an internal company system and convert that data into a file used by e-Tax software. That is a useful integration point because it can reduce re-keying without making an unsupported claim that the winery system itself directly calls a government submission API.^[12]

After submission

For the sales-report workflow, the NTA tells users to check the e-Tax receipt/notification and the message box for errors. A completed transmission should not be treated as valid merely because a local file was generated. Keep the filing confirmation and resolve any e-Tax error notification before closing the reporting task.^[12]

7. Does Japan offer a public API for direct winery compliance filing?

The distinction matters because one API cited in older research is real but unrelated to winery filing. The NTA's マイナポータル等連携プラットフォーム API, or My Number Portal linkage platform API, is defined by the NTA as a platform for obtaining deduction-certificate data needed for year-end adjustment or income-tax return procedures. Its own terms define requesting applications around that purpose.^[13]

The NTA separately publishes e-Tax specifications for software developers, and commercial software can support e-Tax-compatible data workflows.^[14] But a developer should not infer from published XML specifications, a My Number data-retrieval API, or a helper-file export that unrestricted direct submission of liquor-tax filings from a winery SaaS product is officially available.

Safe integration architecture for winery software

1. System of record: capture grapes, production, vessel movements, bottling, removals, returns, losses and inventory continuously.
2. Compliance mapping: map those records to the NTA fields for the applicable report and tax classification.
3. Validation: reconcile volumes, required product classifications and reporting-period totals before creating a filing artifact.
4. Export or supported interface: generate only the format supported by the current official e-Tax specification or NTA tool.
5. Human filing control: keep a user review, signature and submission step unless the NTA explicitly documents and authorizes a machine-to-machine submission path for that filing.
6. Receipt retention: store the e-Tax confirmation and any correction trail with the compliance record.

This architecture preserves automation where the government documentation supports it while avoiding a false claim of government API compatibility.

8. Do not confuse the annual statutory report with the NTA Liquor Industry Actual Conditions Survey

The NTA runs a separate 酒類業実態調査, or Liquor Industry Actual Conditions Survey. The 2026 NTA page asks liquor manufacturers and wholesalers for cooperation and includes a fruit-wine questionnaire. It provides an Excel input system for preparing electronic survey data.^[15]

That survey is not the E1-36 annual manufacture/removal quantities report. A winery should keep these workflows separate:

• E1-36: the statutory annual manufacture, removal and March 31 inventory report, due April 30.^[2]
• Liquor Industry Actual Conditions Survey: a separate NTA industry-information exercise for which the NTA requests cooperation from relevant businesses.^[15]

This distinction corrects another common mistake in English-language summaries, which sometimes describe the industry survey as a universal mandatory "annual wine production survey." If your winery receives a survey request, follow the current instructions that accompany it, but do not substitute the survey file for the statutory E1-36 report.

9. Food sanitation permits and HACCP are a separate compliance layer

Liquor tax reporting is not the winery's only national compliance framework. Under Japan's food-sanitation regime, liquor manufacturing is listed among the business categories subject to a business permit. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) states that permit applications and business notifications can be made through the 食品衛生申請等システム, the Food Sanitation Application System.^[16][17]

The competent local public-health authority administers facility permitting and local implementation. That means a national guide should not invent a single nationwide fee, local inspection timetable, or municipality-specific portal sequence. Confirm the facility's requirements with its responsible public health center.

HACCP-based hygiene management

MHLW states that, in principle, food businesses have been required to implement hygiene management based on HACCP since June 1, 2021. The documented operating duties include preparing a hygiene-management plan, establishing procedures where needed, recording implementation, preserving those records, and periodically reviewing the plan and procedures.^[18]

For winery software teams, the important distinction is the same as with e-Tax: MHLW verifies an electronic application system. That does not by itself establish a public third-party winery-software submission API.

10. Japanese wine labeling rules that affect cellar traceability

The NTA's 果実酒等の製法品質表示基準, the manufacturing-method and quality-labeling standard for fruit wine and related products, creates a direct link between cellar traceability and what a winery can say on the label.^[19]

What "Japanese Wine" means

Under the NTA standard, Japanese Wine (日本ワイン) is domestic wine made using only grapes harvested in Japan, subject to the detailed manufacturing definition in the standard. The NTA's own explanatory pamphlet summarizes it as fruit wine made in Japan using only domestically grown grapes.^[19][20]

Domestic wine made with imported wine or imported grape concentrate does not qualify for the same Japanese Wine presentation. The NTA standard requires disclosures such as use of imported wine or concentrated juice where applicable, and ingredient/origin information must follow the prescribed rules. Older summaries that say every such product must literally be labeled in English as "Domestic Manufactured Wine" oversimplify the requirement.^[19][20]

The 85% rules for variety, vintage and place

For Japanese Wine, the NTA applies 85% thresholds to several front-label claims:

• Single grape variety: at least 85% of the grapes used must be that variety for a single-variety claim.
• Two varieties: the displayed varieties together must account for at least 85%, and they are listed in descending order of use.
• Three or more varieties: displayed varieties together must reach at least 85%, with each displayed percentage and descending order required by the standard.
• Vintage: at least 85% of the grapes must have been harvested in the displayed year.
• Grape-origin place name: at least 85% must come from the displayed harvest area, with additional wording conditions depending on where the wine was made.

These rules are why blend genealogy cannot stop at the tank name. A topping movement, blend or transfer can change the percentage that supports a varietal, vintage or place claim, even when the wine's sensory profile barely changes.^[19][20]

Required label information and text sizes

The NTA wine standard provides a consolidated display format covering items such as Japanese Wine status where applicable, category, ingredients and origin information, manufacturer, content volume and alcohol content. For the label items governed by that wine standard, the general minimum is 8-point Japanese text, with a 6-point exception for containers of 200 mL or less.^[19]

The under-20 drinking warning is governed by a separate labeling rule. NTA explanatory guidance states that alcoholic-beverage containers or packaging must display that drinking by people under 20 is prohibited by law, subject to listed exceptions. That warning has its own minimum type sizes: generally 6 point, or 5.5 point for containers of 360 mL or less.^[21]

11. Geographic indications add another rule set

Using a protected geographical indication is not simply a marketing choice layered on top of the national Japanese Wine definition. Each GI has its own official production standard and control process.

For example, the NTA's production standard for GI Yamanashi requires wine grapes from Yamanashi that meet the specified variety and composition rules, manufacture in Yamanashi, storage in Yamanashi when storage occurs, and bottling in Yamanashi. Before the GI is used, the designated management body must verify that the wine satisfies the applicable characteristics, raw-material and production requirements.^[22]

Do not generalize Yamanashi's thresholds to Hokkaido, Yamagata, Osaka or another Japanese wine GI. Use the current NTA production standard for the exact GI claimed on the label.

12. Practical Japan winery compliance checklist

Every operating month

• Close and reconcile removals from each licensed manufacturing premises.
• Classify each product correctly for liquor-tax purposes, especially low-alcohol sparkling products.
• Capture returns, untaxed transfers, exports, losses and other exceptional movements with supporting records.
• If the month has reportable removal/return activity, prepare the E1-35 liquor tax return by the end of the following month.
• Calendar the related liquor-tax payment for the end of the second following month.

When an exceptional event occurs

• Check whether loss/spoilage requires E1-34 reporting.
• Check equipment-change, method-change, suspension, relocation, repacking, export or untaxed-transfer procedures before assuming the next routine return covers the event.
• Keep the official filing confirmation or paper evidence with the affected lot, event or premises record.

At March 31 close

• Reconcile manufactured quantities, removals and ending inventory.
• Prepare the annual E1-36 manufacture/removal report for April 30.
• If the winery is a licensed seller, prepare E1-37 for April 30.
• If the winery conducts retail sales, confirm the under-20 drinking-prevention implementation report.
• Keep statutory manufacturing records at the premises and preserve closed records for seven years.

Before bottling or label release

• Confirm whether the wine legally qualifies as Japanese Wine.
• Calculate grape-origin, varietal and vintage percentages from the actual blend genealogy.
• Validate mandatory ingredient/origin and manufacturer information.
• Check the under-20 warning separately from the wine-specific display block.
• If using a GI, validate the exact GI production standard and control-body confirmation.

Before October 1, 2026

• Recheck tax mapping for products currently treated as "other sparkling liquor."
• Update the scheduled rate from JPY 80,000/kL to JPY 100,000/kL where the classification applies.
• Recheck the alcohol threshold change from under 10% to under 11% for the other-sparkling-liquor classification.

Official sources and references

All material Japan-specific compliance claims in this guide were checked against primary government sources. Japanese-language sources are controlling where cited. Links were accessed and rechecked on August 5, 2026.

1. E1-35: Liquor tax return procedure (酒税の申告). National Tax Agency (NTA). Current procedure page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
2. E1-36: Manufacture and removal quantity reporting procedure (酒類の製成及び移出の数量等の申告). National Tax Agency. Current procedure page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
3. E1-37: Liquor sales quantity reporting procedure (酒類の販売数量等の報告). National Tax Agency. Current procedure page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
4. E3-2 / E4-4: Under-20 drinking-prevention labeling implementation report procedure. National Tax Agency. Current procedure page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
5. Guide to liquor manufacturing license applications, fruit wine (酒類製造免許の申請等の手引). National Tax Agency, April 2022. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
6. Liquor tax rate table, October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2026. National Tax Agency. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
7. Liquor tax materials and scheduled 2026 rate changes (酒税に関する資料). Ministry of Finance Japan. Current page, updated in 2026. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
8. Outline of 2003 Liquor Tax Act amendments. National Tax Agency, April 1, 2003. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026. This is the official source documenting the change from monthly to annual manufacture/removal quantity reporting.
9. Liquor Tax Act Article 46 interpretation: bookkeeping duty. National Tax Agency. Current legal interpretation page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
10. Sales quantity reporting Q&A. National Tax Agency. Current guidance. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
11. E1-34: Loss and spoilage notification procedure. National Tax Agency. Current procedure page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
12. Submitting liquor sales quantity and related reports through e-Tax. National Tax Agency. Current guidance and preparation-tool materials. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
13. My Number Portal linkage platform API terms of use. National Tax Agency. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026. The terms define the API around deduction-certificate data for year-end adjustment and income-tax return workflows.
14. e-Tax specifications. National Tax Agency / e-Tax. Current developer specification page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
15. 2026 Liquor Industry Actual Conditions Survey (令和8年酒類業実態調査). National Tax Agency, 2026. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
16. Business regulation: food-sanitation permits and notifications. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). Current page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
17. Food business permit / notification overview. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026. Lists liquor manufacturing among the permit categories.
18. HACCP hygiene management. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Current page, including 2026 updates. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
19. Standards for manufacturing methods and quality labeling of fruit wine and related products. National Tax Agency, October 30, 2015; amended through June 2019 on the current page. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
20. NTA fruit-wine labeling rules pamphlet. National Tax Agency. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
21. Explanation of common alcohol labeling requirements. National Tax Agency. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.
22. GI Yamanashi production standard. National Tax Agency, June 26, 2017. Japanese. Accessed August 5, 2026.

Verification notes

This guide was rebuilt from a supplied research document and re-verified against current primary Japanese government sources. Material claims that could not be supported were removed or narrowed. In particular:

• The draft's monthly manufacture-and-shipment report was corrected to the current annual E1-36 obligation.
• The draft's blanket claim that paper filing has been superseded was removed because current NTA procedure pages still permit paper submission.
• The draft's direct e-Tax API claims were narrowed. The cited My Number Portal linkage API does not establish liquor-report submission.
• The draft's mandatory "annual wine production survey" framing was removed. The NTA's 2026 industry survey is a separate exercise for which the agency requests cooperation.
• The tax section now distinguishes standard fruit wine from qualifying low-alcohol products classified as other sparkling liquor and flags the scheduled October 1, 2026 change.
• The wine-label section now follows the NTA's actual definitions, 85% thresholds and separate text-size rules instead of treating them as one generic labeling requirement.
• Generic corporate tax, consumption tax, eLTAX and Companies Act material was not presented as winery-specific reporting. Those obligations depend on entity and transaction facts and belong in separate tax/corporate compliance guidance.