Hi there! It is extremely hot in Tokyo now. They say it’s around 35 degree celsius but I can’t believe normal human can actively walk around the town under this burning air. Let’s start today’s lesson anyways!
Want to make your legal entity in JP? You have to make TEIKAN!
When I was working for British digital agency named “Essence Digital”, I experienced the launch of new legal entity. Believe the people in headquarter (UK) were using Deloitte globally to manage local entities of all over the globe, but using that kind of accounting/consulting firm is always quite expensive. They can especially charge the very expensive price when you want every report in English. The process to make legal entity is something like following.
- Make TEIKAN of your legal entity
- Get that TEIKAN document approved by the legal office
- Submit that approved TEIKAN doc to the ministry of law (a.k.a. “Legal Bureau), and register the information of your directors, your capital amount, and headquarter address.
Ball-park cost of legal entity set-up
The whole process above takes some around 3-4 weeks. Asking a judicial scrivener to make a TEIKAN document is so expensive (typically, JPY 150,000) that you should avoid it. I got a copy of approved TEIKAN from my friend and then just modified it as needed. TEIKAN is basically something defines the way you handle your company’s stock and the operational rules of your company’s board meetings.
- The fee for certification paid to a notary who approves your TEIKAN document is 50,000 yen.
- In case you want to change your TEIKAN, you have to pay JPY25,000 for the updated approval.
- Besides that, you have to submit the “registered stamp” to the notary. It might sound a bit weird but all Japanese people basically have their “registered stamp”. That registration is done in the each city office.
Ok.. can foreigners establish a legal entity in JP?
Japan’s law changed in 2017 and they finally started accepting the foreigner’s directorship over Japan’s legal entity but due to the troublesome work listed above, you probably need to get help from local agency when you want to set up a local legal entities.