Company Registration, Corporate Registry and Online Filing (houjin-bangou, Legal Affairs Bureau, e-Tax, g-biz ID)

Several official sites cover the practical steps of incorporating and registering a company in Japan. The corporate number registry lets anyone check whether a desired company name is already taken and look up a company's registration history, including past changes of address or name. The Legal Affairs Bureau (houmukyoku), which actually processes company registrations, publishes a page on commercial registration procedures, a page for the Tokyo bureau where KK and GK documents are physically filed, and a page with estimated processing times for new registrations in Tokyo. A site collecting real examples of articles of incorporation (teikan) from Japanese companies, including ones that later went public, is useful when drafting the business-purpose clauses of a new company's own articles so the wording is broad enough while still being accepted by a notary or registry office. Two further articles cover the business-activity codes that must be listed when registering a sole proprietorship or company, with freee's own list of ready-made activity descriptions serving as a practical template, and the situations in which the prefecture name can be omitted from a company's official registered address. Finally, g-biz ID is the unified government login used to access various online business services (grants, subsidies, reporting) without registering separately on each one; a related page explains how long an unused account stays valid before it needs to be reactivated. The e-Tax portal is the online system for filing tax notifications and returns: one section is used to submit the notification of business commencement (kaigyou-todoke) for sole proprietors, and another explains how to file the notification of company establishment through e-Tax's dedicated corporate software, avoiding an in-person visit to the tax office. Source: https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/henkorireki-johoto.html?selHouzinNo=1011001139585 — corporate registry (houjin-bangou) — check company name availability and registration history. Source: https://houmukyoku.moj.go.jp/homu/COMMERCE_11-1.html — Legal Affairs Bureau — general page on commercial registration. Source: https://houmukyoku.moj.go.jp/tokyo/page000001_00887.html — Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau — where KK/GK registration documents are filed in Tokyo. Source: https://houmukyoku.moj.go.jp/tokyo/static/kanryoyotei_00070.htm — estimated processing times for company registration applications in Tokyo. Source: https://teikan.tokyo/teikan/index.php — real examples of articles of incorporation (teikan) from Japanese companies, including IPO'd ones. Source: https://note.com/mitsushi_sclr/n/nd7060d14f4da — article explaining business-activity codes (jigyo-shumoku) used at registration. Source: https://www.freee.co.jp/kb/kb-kaigyou/occupation/ — freee's ready-made list of business-activity descriptions for sole proprietor registration. Source: https://tsunagu-sihosyoshi.com/cases-in-which-the-prefecture-name-can-be-omitted/#index_id6 — when the prefecture name can be omitted from a company's registered address. Source: https://gbiz-id.go.jp/top/account_expiry/account_expiry.html — g-biz ID — unified government login for business online services, and account expiry rules. Source: https://www.e-tax.nta.go.jp/todokedesho/index.htm — e-Tax — file the business-commencement notification (kaigyou-todoke) online. Source: https://www.e-tax.nta.go.jp/e-taxsoftweb/e-taxsoftweb_hojin.htm — e-Tax — file the company-establishment notification through the corporate e-Tax software.