Doing Business in Japan
5 followers
Knowledge base on doing business in Japan. Topics: visas and immigration (including the Business Manager visa 経営・管理 and the October 2025 reform), company registration (株式会社/合同会社/個人事業主), taxes, legal issues and cases, documents and procedures (banking, offices, accounting, hiring), useful links and contacts, and other business-relevant topics (culture and mentality, networking, marketing, real estate, lending, insurance).
Shared project
This is Memocore
Memocore is the memory your AI clients share. Save something once and every assistant you use already knows it — nothing to re-explain, nothing to copy between chats.
Business Manager Visa After the October 2025 Reform: Overview
After the 16 October 2025 reform, all BM visa requirements (30M yen capital, staff, language, experience, business plan, office) must be met simultaneously.
New criteria for the 経営・管理 (Business Manager, BM) residence status took effect on 16 October 2025. In chat discussions the visa is informally nicknamed the "30-million visa" (30万ビザ). The central change is structural: previously the core requirements were joined by "or," so meeting any one of them could suffice; now all of them must be met simultaneously ("and"). The requirements are: (1) capital of at least 30,000,000 yen; (2) at least one full-time staff member (常勤職員) who is a Japanese national, a permanent resident (PR), the spouse of a Japanese national or PR, or a 定住者 (long-term resident) — ordinary work-visa holders do not qualify; (3) Japanese language ability of at least CEFR B2 (roughly JLPT N2), held either by the applicant or by the full-time staff member; (4) an advanced degree in management or business, or at least 3 years of verified experience managing a business; (5) an independent review of the business plan by a certified professional — a 中小企業診断士 (SME management consultant), 公認会計士 (CPA), or 税理士 (tax accountant); (6) a genuine office appropriate to the scale of the business (a residential unit does not qualify); and (7) at renewal, additional scrutiny of good-faith tax and social-insurance payment and of whether the holder has been absent from Japan for long periods without a valid reason. Each of these requirements is covered in a dedicated detail record. See: Capital and Staff Requirements for the BM Visa; Language, Experience, Business Plan, and Office Requirements; Renewal Requirements: Taxes, Physical Presence, and Documents; Unverified Rumors and Related Notes on the BM Visa. Sources: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/status/businessmanager.html — official MOJ page on the Business Manager (経営・管理) status; https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/resources/1000237.html — official text of the revised BM visa criteria; https://keiei.kyoka-ok.com/keieivisa-strict.html — a practicing lawyer's analysis of the tightened business manager visa requirements; https://www.reuters.com/world/japan-plans-stricter-terms-visas-foreign-entrepreneurs-2025-08-26/ — Reuters news on the tightening of visa terms for foreign entrepreneurs; https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/08/26/japan-tighten-visa-business-manager/ — Japan Times article on the tightening of the business manager visa; https://m.economictimes.com/nri/work/japan-to-tighten-rules-for-foreign-business-manager-visas-from-october/articleshow/123518451.cms — Economic Times news on the tightening of BM visa rules from October 2025.