Every firm you ask will give you a different number, and all of them will be right, because they are answering different questions. “Two weeks” is how long registration takes. “Three months” is how long the visa takes. Neither is how long it takes to be a foreign founder running a company in Japan, because the steps do not happen side by side — they queue behind each other.
What actually sets your timeline is the order. This guide sets out which step blocks which, where the queue is longest, and which parts you can run in parallel if you know to.
The dependency chain
Six things have to happen. Four of them cannot start until an earlier one has finished.
| Step | Cannot start until | Can run in parallel with |
|---|---|---|
| Decide structure, name, capital | — | Office search |
| Notarise articles of incorporation (KK only) | Structure decided | Office search |
| Pay in the capital | Articles settled, an account available | Office search |
| Register the company | Capital paid and evidenced | — |
| Apply for the Business Manager Visa | Company registered, office secured | Bank account application |
| Open the corporate bank account | Company registered | Visa application |
The chain matters more than any individual duration. You cannot register before the capital is paid, you cannot pay the capital without an account to pay it into, and you cannot apply for the visa without the registration certificate. Compress any single step and the ones behind it still queue.
Where the time actually goes
1. Documents from your own country
If you are not resident in Japan, the first delay is usually not Japanese at all. A non-resident cannot produce the seal certificate Japanese procedure is built around, so a signature certificate has to come from your own authority or from the Japanese embassy or consulate covering you. That moves at the speed of a consular appointment, and it is the item most often underestimated.
Start this before anything else. It is the one step that has no dependencies and the one most likely to sit idle while you wait. The rest of the remote-incorporation mechanics are in can you set up a company in Japan without living there?
2. The capital payment
Paid-in capital must be paid into a bank account and evidenced before registration. For a non-resident with no Japanese account this is a coordination problem rather than a waiting problem — the Ministry of Justice allows the payment to run through a director’s account, and through a third party’s where every incorporator and director lives abroad. Solving it takes a conversation with your firm, not a queue.
3. Registration
Filing at the Legal Affairs Bureau is the part everyone quotes, and it is genuinely the short leg. It is also the gate: the registration certificate is what the visa application and the bank both want to see.
4. The visa
This is the long leg, and it is the one you cannot influence. The Immigration Services Agency publishes average processing times by bureau, updated periodically — check the current figure there rather than trusting a number in a blog post, including this one. Averages move, and they differ between regional bureaus.
What you can influence is whether the application is complete. Applications that come back for more documents restart the clock in practice, and the most common reasons are covered in why Business Manager Visa applications are refused.
5. The bank account
This runs in parallel with the visa, and it is the step most likely to stall without a deadline attached to it. It is also the one where a representative director living overseas hurts most. See opening a corporate bank account in Japan.
The 2025 rules made the front of the queue longer
Three of the requirements added on 16 October 2025 have to be satisfied before the visa application, not after it, and each one is a lead time of its own.
- Independent premises. A virtual office or a coworking desk does not qualify, so this is a lease negotiation, and practitioners generally advise a term of at least a year. Office search has no dependencies — start it on day one, in parallel with everything else.
- A full-time employee. Recruiting takes as long as recruiting takes, and the person must hold a status that permits the work. If you are relying on that employee to carry the Japanese-language requirement, the hire is on the critical path, not beside it.
- A verified business plan. The plan must be confirmed by an SME management consultant, CPA or tax accountant, and a gyoseishoshi — the profession most founders engage for the visa itself — is not on that list. If your firm is not, you need a second professional lined up — which is a scheduling problem before it is a cost problem. We list which firms in this directory are registered on who can verify your business plan.
The full set of requirements is in what the October 2025 rules actually require.
The order most people get wrong
The common sequence is: decide everything, incorporate, then start looking for an office and an employee, then discover the business plan needs verifying by someone your firm cannot supply. Each discovery adds a lead time that could have been running from the start.
The steps with no dependencies — the consular document, the office search, the employee search, finding a qualified professional to verify the plan — are the ones to start first, precisely because nothing is blocking them. They are also the ones that feel premature before the company exists, which is why they get left.
What to ask a firm
Ask for a sequence, not a duration. “How long does it take?” invites a number that describes one leg. “What is the order, what blocks what, and what should I start today?” gets you a plan you can act on — and a firm that cannot answer it in that form is telling you something.
Ask specifically what they need from you and when, because your own documents are usually the long pole. Ask whether the business plan verification is included or arranged separately, and how long that adds. Ask what happens if the visa comes back with a request for more documents.
Our directory records what each firm covers and which of them publish their fees, with the date each listing was checked. Which firms publish their fees is the fastest way to see who will give you a number before you make contact.