Specific Licenses and Regulated Business Fields — Overview

A number of business activities in Japan require licensing beyond ordinary company registration: real estate, mini-hotels/Airbnb, buying and selling used goods, the beauty industry, telecom services with chat features, trademarks, private security, social welfare business, medicine, and nonprofits (一般社団法人). Requirements and cost vary a great deal by field. Real estate (leasing/brokerage) requires a license/exam, or hiring a licensed employee; a guarantee deposit of around 10 million yen or membership in a guarantee association with a fee of around 600,000 yen/year is often needed (imprecise, chat opinion). If leasing property is planned, this must be explicitly stated in the company's articles of incorporation. For mini-hotels/Airbnb, the hotel-business law applies — each unit must be licensed, and rental is capped at 180 days per year without a special permit (in designated tourist zones a special permit can allow more than 180 days). 古物商許可 (Kobutsu-sho Kyoka) is required for anyone buying/selling used goods, including car dealers, even for export-only sales; it requires a physical office, a responsible officer (Japanese is not required for that person), and the director's résumé — a specialist can be hired to handle this turnkey. Full access to all car auctions (for example, USS) reportedly (unverified) requires the license plus a bank account; direct access to USS auctions is only granted after a year of holding the license — before that, access is only through an intermediary for a fee. It was also mentioned (secondhand, sourced from YouTube, unverified) that full auction access may require a "Japanese guarantor." The beauty industry (hairdressers, makeup artists) is tightly licensed: a license requires training specifically in Japan, and it is not legal to work without Japanese qualifications. Telecom/chat services: apps with chat features must register as a telecom operator (電気通信事業届出), costing about 15,000 yen, filed once for the whole company, not per product. On police request, data about the parties to a conversation (IP address, etc., but not message content) must be provided. For trademarks (商標), patent offices reject applications that resemble brands already in use anywhere in the world ("anti-troll" policy), so a genuinely unique mark is needed, ideally with kanji/kana. Real costs through a patent/trademark firm: about 70,000 yen for the first category plus 20,000 yen per additional category; one application filed in September was approved in March (about 6 months); expedited review is available for an extra fee (contact: mm-patent.com/en/). Another example from Reddit (r/japanlife): for 3 classes over 5 years, 91,810 yen total (Application Fee ¥3,400 + ¥8,600/class; Registration Fee, 5 years ¥17,200/class or 10 years ¥32,900/class; PAPC Document Scanning Fee ¥2,400 + ¥800/page, plus postage). Some services charge in stages (for example 10,000 yen for review, non-refundable and paid again on rejection) — not a universal practice. If the trademark owner's address changes, the patent office record must be updated separately, or trademark rights could be lost. A private security company (ChOP) can legally be registered, including owning sound/drone-dispersal equipment, a drone fleet, or a marine fleet; it is regulated by a separate law and requires a qualified/trained officer on staff. Firearms are difficult to obtain, especially automatic weapons. For social welfare business (elder/disability care), an example of a full license set includes 訪問入浴, 居宅介護, 重度訪問介護, 移動支援, with 定期巡回 licensed separately. Medical licensing is extremely difficult — according to one chat participant, only about 4 lawyers/consultants in the entire country can reliably guarantee success with it, and without the right contacts the process can fail (chat opinion, unverified). For a 一般社団法人 (nonprofit), setup costs roughly 100,000 yen in government fees plus legal work; at least around 10 members are required; needed documents include the Articles of Incorporation (定款), a purpose statement (設立趣旨書), and a business plan and budget for two fiscal years (事業計画書・活動予算書); a physical (not virtual, per one opinion) registered address is needed and is published in a public registry — often the most expensive part of the process. A nonprofit may not officially engage in political or religious activity as its primary purpose. Source: https://www.mm-patent.com/en/ — Patent/trademark firm mentioned for trademark registration with expedited review. Source: https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/t0100 — Official Japanese trademark search and verification database.