The October 2025 reform raised the capital requirement for the Business Manager Visa to JPY 30 million. Almost every English-language guide treats that as a funding problem: find the money, park it in the company, satisfy immigration. Very few mention that the same number has a second effect, on a different law, that costs you from your first invoice.
A company capitalised at JPY 30 million cannot claim the consumption tax exemption that new companies in Japan normally get. Not for year one, not for year two. You are a taxable business from the day you start trading.
How the exemption normally works
Japanese consumption tax exempts a business whose taxable sales in the base period — broadly, two fiscal years earlier — were JPY 10 million or less. A newly formed company has no base period at all, which is why new companies are ordinarily exempt for their first two years. That two-year window is a real cash-flow advantage and founders plan around it.
Why JPY 30 million cancels it
There is an exception, and the visa reform walks straight into it. Where a company has no base period, the National Tax Agency looks instead at paid-in capital at the start of the fiscal year. If that figure is JPY 10 million or more, the exemption does not apply — for the first fiscal year or the second.
The Business Manager Visa now requires JPY 30 million. That is three times the threshold. There is no version of a compliant Business Manager Visa company that keeps the exemption.
The National Tax Agency sets this out in No. 6503, on companies with no base period. There is a corresponding notification to file — though where the fact is stated on the incorporation notification, a separate filing is not required.
What it actually means
It is not a penalty and it is not a surprise bill at year end. It means you charge consumption tax, you account for it, and you remit it, from the beginning. Practically:
- Your pricing has to be built with tax in mind from your first quote, not adjusted in year three.
- You need bookkeeping capable of a consumption tax return in year one, which is a different standard of record-keeping from a simple profit-and-loss.
- The qualified invoice system applies to you immediately, because you are a taxable business — so registration is a day-one question, not a “later” one.
- Your accounting cost in year one is higher than the founder next to you who capitalised at JPY 5 million and is exempt.
That last point matters when you compare quotes. A tax firm quoting an annual retainer for a straightforward exempt startup is quoting for a different job than yours.
The filings that follow incorporation
Registration creates the company. It does not tell the tax authorities anything. Several notifications follow, and two of them have deadlines early enough to be missed while you are still dealing with immigration.
| Filing | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Corporation establishment notification (法人設立届出書) | Within two months of incorporation |
| Blue-form return application (青色申告の承認申請書) | The day before the earlier of: three months after incorporation, or the last day of the first fiscal year |
| Notification of establishment of a salary-paying office (給与支払事務所等の開設届出書) | Once you start paying salary — which, under the 2025 rules, is immediately |
The blue-form deadline is the one that bites. Blue-form status is what lets you carry losses forward, and a first-year loss is normal for a company that has just spent on an office, a salary and professional fees. Miss the application and you file white — the loss is not carried, and you pay tax in year two on profit that a blue-form company would have offset.
Note the shape of that deadline: it is not “three months”. It is the earlier of three months and your first year-end. A company incorporated close to its own fiscal year-end can have a window of weeks.
The salary-paying office notification is new in practice for this audience. The 2025 reform made a full-time employee mandatory, so every compliant Business Manager Visa company is a payroll operation from the start. That brings withholding, and social insurance, which is compulsory for corporations. We cover the employer’s side of that in hiring your first employee in Japan.
Why this moves the accountant decision earlier
Founders usually engage an immigration specialist first and a tax accountant “once things settle”. The 2025 rules make that order expensive. By the time things settle you may have missed the blue-form window, priced your services without consumption tax in them, and started payroll without the withholding set up.
There is also an overlap worth exploiting. The reform requires your business plan to be verified by a qualified professional, and the three professions that qualify are tax accountants, CPAs and SME management consultants. Of the firms in our directory, the three that are registered are all tax practices. Engaging a tax accountant early can solve a visa requirement and the tax setup in one appointment.
What to ask
Ask a prospective tax accountant four things: what does the first year cost given that we are a taxable business from day one, when exactly is our blue-form deadline, will you handle the qualified invoice registration, and can you verify a business plan for a Business Manager Visa application.
The last question is not a tax question, but the answer decides whether you need one professional or two.
Our directory lists English-speaking tax accountants in Japan, and which firms publish their fees shows who will give you a number before you make contact. The capital requirement itself, and everything else the reform added, is in what the October 2025 rules actually require.
This is a summary of published rules, not tax advice. Consumption tax has exceptions this page does not cover, and your own position needs a licensed professional.