Minimum Capital, the Visa Threshold, Deposit Rules, and Spending Capital

A company (KK or GK) can formally be registered with as little as 1 yen of capital — the 5 million yen requirement applies specifically to the Business Manager visa, not to registration itself. With 1 yen of capital, opening a bank account will be practically impossible. In one known case a company was registered with exactly 5.01 million yen (501 man) of capital, deliberately set just above the 5 million yen visa threshold but not much higher, since exceeding it further forfeits some government benefits (such as zero-interest loans) that are only available to smaller-capital companies. Statutory capital is paid into the founder's personal account — a company account cannot be opened before registration. Large Japanese banks (for example SBI Shinsei) can explicitly forbid using a personal account to receive incorporation capital ("business use" is not allowed), even threatening to close the account. For KK registration, at least one co-founder must hold a personal account specifically with a Japanese bank (Wise and similar pseudo-banks do not qualify); a bank or lawyer may insist the entire capital arrive in a single transfer. Proof of the capital deposit for the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局) is accepted in several forms: an official balance certificate (残高証明書, which can take one to two weeks to prepare at some banks such as SMBC), a screenshot of online/mobile banking (which must show the account holder's name and account number, not just the amount), or a copy of a bank passbook page (通帳). According to a shiho-shoshi, a mobile-app screenshot is even considered "more modern" than a paper statement and is generally accepted. Capital can and should be spent running the business (salaries, equipment, office) rather than left frozen in the account; it cannot simply be returned to the founder as an individual without a formal process (dividends, taxed salary, or liquidation). Shares/equity can be split between co-founders arbitrarily, without being strictly tied to each person's actual cash contribution — for example, one person contributes the entire sum but ownership is split 50/50 (a lawyer's chat opinion, with the caveat that "another lawyer might object"). Statutory capital does not have to be cash — equipment, real estate, IP, and other assets can be contributed in kind (現物出資, with valuation governed by accounting rules); valuing an in-kind contribution, especially IP, is legally complex and risky, and chat participants generally advise against attempting it, suggesting an informal verbal agreement on percentage splits at the start instead.