Register a company in Japan

Yes - incorporation runs by power of attorney: articles, notarisation, capital sequence and registration all complete remotely. The bank account is where presence helps; fintech-friendly banks onboard remotely more readily than megabanks, and if a visa is in scope you will visit anyway. We sequence around your travel.

Turnkey KK registration starts from $4,900 including notarisation, registration tax and the first-year address; with the bank-account project from $7,900. Government registration tax alone is 0.7% of capital with a ¥150,000 floor. Renewals with accounting run from $2,500 a year - Japan is not the cheap option; it is the credible one.

The KK is the prestige joint-stock form: notarised articles, expected by enterprise customers, banks and visa officers - the default if you sell trust. The GK (Godo Kaisha) is the LLC analogue: no notarisation, ¥60,000 registration floor, faster and cheaper - Amazon and Apple run GKs in Japan. Rule of thumb: selling to Japanese enterprises or seeking a visa - KK; a holding or foreign-parent subsidiary - GK often wins. We have a separate page for it.

Plan on roughly 30.6% effective in Tokyo - 23.2% national plus inhabitant and enterprise taxes - not the 23.2% headline. Consumption tax is 10% under the qualified-invoice system. Dividends out carry 20.42% before treaty relief. The blue-form election, filed in the first three months, buys ten-year loss carryforward - we file it by default.

Because Japanese banks are conservative with foreign-owned newcos: they want substance, Japanese-language materials, a plausible local story, and often a resident signatory - and can decline without appeal. We treat the account as its own workstream: file built in Japanese, fintech-friendly banks like GMO Aozora and SBI worked alongside the majors, and expectations set at three to eight weeks. The company is easy; the account is earned.

It got expensive. From October 2025 the requirements rose to ¥30 million capital plus at least one full-time employee, with tighter business-plan vetting and management-experience expectations. The era of the ¥5M visa company is over - we now design capital, premises and the first hire around the visa file from day one, or advise honestly when another route fits better.

Legally, no - the residency requirement was abolished in 2015, which makes Japan unusually open among major economies. Practically, banks and some counterparties warm to a local face, and a visa requires the applicant to run the business. We tell you when a resident officer is worth it and when it is theatre.

Hiring is straightforward; dismissal is the commitment. Courts require objective rationality and social acceptability to uphold a termination, so exits are negotiated, not announced. Employer social insurance adds roughly 15% to payroll. We structure contracts, probation and fixed terms so the flexibility you need is built in legally at the start.

Different products. Singapore sells efficiency: 17% tax, English, a week to operational. Japan sells the market itself - customers who pay premiums and stay decades - at ~31% tax and higher friction. Selling into Japan, the KK beats a Singapore entity every time; running an Asian holding hub, Singapore wins. Many structures end up with both, and we build them.

The company: two to four weeks through notarisation, capital and registration. The bank: three to eight more, run in parallel from day one. A Business Manager visa: two to four months with the ¥30M file. Realistic full picture for an operating, banked, visa-backed presence: about one quarter - faster when banking needs are simple.