Virtual vs. Physical Office Requirements and Rental Costs

The bare minimum to register an LLC-type company (KK/GK) is statutory capital and a registered office address. A virtual office is fine for a simple registration not aimed at a visa: roughly 5,000–10,000 yen/month, though some base plans start as low as 660 yen/month — described as a "marketing hook," with genuinely usable plans starting around 2,000–4,000 yen/month. One example service is gmo-office.com (forwards mail home, offers meeting rooms). Virtual offices work as a registered address for GK and presumably for sole proprietors too, as long as the provider offers an address-registration service. Banks and phone carriers sometimes detect the use of a virtual office or coworking space even when it is not disclosed, which can complicate opening an account (example: a minor hiccup at a Trunk Bank interview, though the account was opened anyway). The Business Manager visa requires a physical office with real "four walls," ideally with a company nameplate at the entrance — mandatory on the mailbox by several participants' experience, optional on the building or in the room, mainly "for credibility" with immigration rather than a strict legal requirement. A serviced office (Regus, WeWork, Tensho, etc.) does not always qualify — some contract types ("rental office temporary use agreement") may not satisfy immigration for the BM visa. An apartment or house can be used as an office only if it is formally set up as a commercial space with a separate entrance, no signs of residential use (beds, etc.), and this is registered with the city; zoning also needs to be checked with the city. Registering a company at a rented residential property without that commercial status is widely considered illegal in the chat — a residential lease does not permit business use, and an immigration officer told one participant directly that it was not allowed without a separate entrance. A possible legal route is a privately owned house (一戸建て) with a clearly separated zone, a floor plan, office photos, a nameplate, and separately tracked utility bills. Registering a sole proprietorship or GK at a home or rented address allows part of rent and utilities to be deducted as business expenses in proportion to the area used — up to about 50% of floor area usually does not raise questions with the tax office. A classic (non-serviced) office typically requires 礼金 (reikin, a non-refundable "gratitude" deposit) equal to roughly 3 months of rent by one estimate, or 4–10 months (average 4–5) by another — noticeably more than for a residential lease. One real example: 448,000 yen paid upfront for a 93,500 yen/month lease (one month's rent plus deposit plus reikin plus one month's guarantor fee plus brokerage commission). In Tokyo, a small office for a visa can run from roughly 10,000–30,000 yen/month in outlying districts (though screening and guarantor requirements are tougher there) up to 120,000 yen/month for 7 square meters in central Shibuya; in the regions, a spacious 50 square meter office can run 250,000 yen/month. Move-in costs start around 200,000 yen and up; a full commercial space typically needs 6–10 months of rent upfront, while renting an apartment as an office usually needs less (2–3 months). Among serviced offices, Tensho Office runs roughly 80,000–90,000 yen/month for 5 square meters for two people (Shibuya/Yoyogi), with a first payment of about 280,000 yen; price differences between districts within the network are small (up to about 10,000 yen). Small booth-style offices for a visa start around 24,000 yen/month (tensho-office.com in central Tokyo, with two-person options up to about 100,000 yen/month). Hello Office's first payment starts around 10,000+ yen. A budget option is Tamasoft SoftOffice (tamasoft.co.jp/SoftOffice) — reikin of 15,000 yen plus a deposit equal to one month's rent, refundable on move-out. Serviced/coworking offices can be priced roughly 1.5x higher than classic offices despite advertised "free months." Source: https://www.gmo-office.com/ — Example virtual office service with mail forwarding and meeting rooms. Source: https://www.tensho-office.com/chiyoda_chuo/kyobashi/ — Example serviced office of the Tensho Office network in central Tokyo. Source: https://www.tamasoft.co.jp/SoftOffice/index-e.html — Budget serviced-office provider Tamasoft SoftOffice. Source: https://suumo.jp/map/tokyo/sc_shibuya/ — SUUMO real-estate aggregator, Tokyo/Shibuya section.