Tax situation as a visiting researcher

Hi!
I have a question regarding my tax situation and I'd appreciate any help. I am a postdoc researcher (my status at my host institute is "Visiting Researcher", so I am not employed here) and I was awarded a fellowship with a monthly payment from an EU country research institution to conduct my research in Japan for 2 years. In that way, it is very much like the JSPS postdoc fellowship. As far as I know, fellowships/scholarships are tax-exempt (at least the JSPS is) but I want to be absolutely certain about it. I already tried contacting the NTA's English consultation hotline but they surprisingly barely spoke English... I have no idea who could give me a reliable answer, so I figured I'd just post it here.
Also, in the case that I don't have to pay income tax, would that also mean that I don't have to pay residence tax?
Thanks in advance.

if you mean 特別研究員 in 日本学術振興会, it is taxable, treated as salary. (you need to pay both of income tax and resident tax.)
https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-pd/data/tei_yoshiki/h30/10C.pdf

Thanks for your reply. I think the fellowship you are referring to is for Japanese nationals and also requires employment at a research institute. There is a JSPS Postdoc Fellowship for foreigners that is tax-emept. It states in the guidelines: "The fellowship does not constitute employment nor is the allowance considered to be pay or remuneration. Therefore, your allowance under the fellowship is not subject to taxation. The National Tax Agency recognizes this tax-exempt status. "
I am not employed either and see a whole lot of parallels between my case and the JSPS. But it all seems really fuzzy.

After 183 days in Japan you become tax resident. If there is an exemption for income tax, that is something you probably need to check with the tax office - irrespective if you are "employed" or not, if you are receiving money, that is income. Tax emption if one applies is what you are after clarification on.
You also need to check if you are exempt from social insurances (health, pension).
As a resident, even with zero income, you would be paying resident tax, but you will have income, so unlikely to be the minimum.

My suggestion, get some professional accounting advice as yours is not a common situation.

特別研究員　considered as a salary.
外国人特別研究員 considered as compensation of their 滞在費 in Japan.
of course, those interpretation is the result of the arguments between 文部科学省 and 国税庁.
so, my thought is:
it is essentially taxable, but, for 外国人特別研究員, there is a special treatment that 国税庁 agrees with the money is considered as an expense of 滞在費 (not salary).
no one knows that your fellowship is taxable or not. generally speaking, fellowships for post doc. are taxable. probably, it is common in worldwide.(I was treated as that in USA.) fellowships for STUDENT may possibly be non-taxable. (post doc is no more student.)

but, there is a possibility that Japan has tax treaty with your country. for example, USA and Japan have tax treaty, and it says that exchange scholars and researchers are exempt for their income tax for the first 2 years. post doc is applicable. it is highly possible that you country has similar agreement with Japan. please investigate this.