Company administrative obligations: address changes, the annual cycle, zero declarations, and supplier IDs

Changing a company's address requires several notifications: the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局) — a strict 2-week deadline, with a fine up to 1 million yen for the director; the tax office — a fine up to 50,000 yen; the pension fund — usually automatic via MyNumber if linked; and the labor office — with less strict deadlines. For a sole proprietor in the standard case, no special notification to the tax office is needed — simply listing the new address on the next return is enough; special forms are only required if there are employees or a separately registered office. The typical annual cycle of business obligations, as described by one participant, runs: fiscal year-end (autumn) → visa application → consumption tax → employee insurance → interim (advance) tax payments → and the cycle repeats. A zero declaration (a registered company with no actual activity) can be filed independently through Freee, but even then, initial company setup costs, capital, and so on must be entered — the books still need to be in order. It is recommended to consult a zeirishi at least once, since the cost of a mistake is high for BM-visa holders; for closing a fiscal period with zero or minimal activity, a free consultation can be booked at the tax office (税務署) rather than immediately paying an accountant. Since 2024/2025, auditors have started requiring a supplier's 法人番号 (corporate ID number) to be listed for purchases, for reporting purposes — this creates difficulties for purchases through Amazon or Rakuten, since an invoice with that number is not always available.