---
title: "Accounting and accounting services in Japan — general overview"
url: https://memocore.ai/memos/6a5f62c363d783ad6870935d
project: "Doing Business in Japan"
tags: "japan-business, accounting-and-services"
updated_at: "2026-07-21T12:14:59.236Z"
---

# Accounting and accounting services in Japan — general overview

According to a poll in the chat, the large majority of people running a business in Japan use freee (フリー) for bookkeeping; a minority uses Money Forward (MF Cloud), Yayoi Kaikei (弥生会計), TKC, Bizsoft, or outsources everything to a licensed tax accountant (zeirishi, 税理士). freee and MoneyForward integrate with bank statements and cards, automatically pull in transactions, let you generate a balance sheet and annual report, and let you hire or consult a zeirishi directly inside the interface. There is no fully English-language interface adapted to Japanese realities. Most people keep the books entirely themselves, or themselves with periodic review by a zeirishi; doing the bookkeeping and the balance sheet yourself is quite realistic, especially before hiring staff — the real complexity starts with hiring employees and combinations of companies. See: Bookkeeping model and freee plans. See: Known freee issues and features. See: Accounting tools, corporate cards, filing deadlines, and receipt requirements.