How to decide trade name of company in Japan ? In the case you make a company in Japan, there are some regulations relating to name of your company. You can include Hiragana (あいうえおetc.）, Katakana (アイウエオetc.), Kanji (愛、宇、江 etc.), Alphabetical letters (A, a, B, b etc.), Number (1, 2, 3 etc.) So, company named “123株式会社” is OK. And only a part of symbol is OK. 「＆」「’」「，」「－」「．」「・」are available. So, you can not use 「:」「、」「。」. 「東京＆日本株式会社」 is OK. You can use a symbol letters between letters. So, 「東京＆日本株式会社」 is OK.  「東京＆－日本株式会社」「＆東京日本株式会社」 is not OK. On the other hand ..read more

An explanation of foreign tax credit for residents of Japan Let’s assume that you have been living in Japan for more than five years. Then, you are a permanent resident for tax purposes. Then, if you have an income of 3 million yen in the Philippines, you will also be taxed on 3 million yen in Japan. However, you have already paid income tax on 3 million yen (profit) to the Philippine tax office. If you also pay income tax on 3 million yen to the Japanese tax office, you will be paying income tax twice. In this case, you can apply for a foreign tax credit. You also have an income of 2 mi ..read more

I received a request for inheritance registration. The deceased person was Tom. The requester was Nancy, Tom’s child. Tom had a spouse, W. They wanted W to inherit the real estate that Tom owned. In this case, the legal heirs were W and Nancy. So, I had to create a division agreement between W and Nancy. In that agreement, they decided that W would inherit the real estate. The procedure was simple. To proceed with the procedure, I obtained Tom’s family register. Then, I found out that Tom had been married to F (former wife) before he married W. And, I found out that he had two children ..read more

Housing loans and serious illness in Japan You will borrow money from a bank when you buy real estate in Japan. Or, even if you have enough cash to buy the real estate, you might consider borrowing money from a bank to buy it after reading this article. This is an explanation of a special clause that will make your debt to the bank disappear if you get cancer or something after you borrow money from the bank. You should add the three major disease guarantee clause when you borrow money from the bank. I will explain this clause. Housing loans and Group credit life insurance ..read more

The start of the invoice system in Japan If you are running a business in Japan, you may have heard of the word invoice system（インボイス制度）, which will start from October 1, 2023. This system is a system that almost all people, whether they are self-employed or company managers, need to know. Unfortunately, Japan does not change its policy of raising taxes. Even if ordinary people are suffering from a heavy burden of national taxes, politicians may be working for the benefit of some vested interests. To use the “purchase tax deduction for consumption tax”(消費税の仕入税額控除), you (Business operator) need ..read more

Japan Real Estate Investment If you are looking for real estate for investment in Japan, you might try to search for information written in English. However, I do not recommend that. Because I think that the real estate that you would find using English is prepared for people who do not live in Japan and do not know the fair market price of real estate in Japan. Some real estate companies that speak English introduce real estate at high prices that Japanese residents would not buy. Therefore, it is important to look for real estate in Japanese when you are looking for real estate for investm ..read more

What are the accounts(勘定科目) for social insurance premiums(社会保険料) of Japan ? What are the accounts(勘定科目) for social insurance premiums? What is social insurance? Accounting for social insurance premiums A simpler way (Strictly speaking, this is not correct way, but it does not make a significant difference in the amount of taxes paid)   What are the accounts(勘定科目) for social insurance premiums(社会保険料) of Japan ? If you run a company in Japan, you will join the social insurance system. If you are a business owner and do not join the social insurance system, you will have to join the nationa ..read more

Assuming that Mr. A and Ms. B are executive officers(業務執行社員) of a limited liability company (LLC＝合同会社＝GK) in Japan. There are no other members besides Mr. A and Ms. B. Mr. A and Ms. B invested 50 yen each to incorporate the LLC. So, the registered capital amount is 100 yen. An executive officer is equivalent to a director (取締役) of a stock company (KK Company=株式会社) in Japan. There are several ways to remove Mr. A from the executive officer position. 1. Mr. A and Ms. B can agree that Mr. A should be removed from the executive officer position. So, if Mr. A does not agree to it, this way is no ..read more

Online Sales and Japanese Bookkeeping Let’s say you sell products on Mercari, Yahoo! Auctions, Amazon, etc. Your situation is as follows You sell an item on Mercari. August 1   You list your product on Mercari for 5,000 yen. August 2   The product sold for 5,000 yen.(^^♪ August 3　 The buyer paid 5,000 yen. (The sales amount is temporarily kept by Mercari). August 4 　You shipped the merchandise to the customer. August 5 　The merchandise arrives at the purchaser’s location and the transaction is completed. After deducting 500 yen for the handling fee to Mercari and 200 ye ..read more

Japanese Taxation on Dissolution of a Company Assume you have established a limited liability company in Japan with an investment of 500,000 yen. The capital of this company is 500,000 yen. If you dissolve this company and receive 500,000 yen of the company’s residual assets, would you be subject to income tax or other taxes on this 500,000 yen? If you dissolve a limited liability company in Japan and receive a distribution of residual assets(500,000 yen), the amount of the distribution that exceeds the amount of capital contribution is considered deemed dividends(みなし配当＝Minashi Haitou), and i ..read more