This page explains exactly how listings on Kaisha Guide are put together, what we check, and what we will not do. If anything here is not being followed on a listing, please tell us.
Everything comes from the provider’s own website
Each listing is compiled by reading the provider’s own published material — their website, their fee pages, their firm profile. We record what they state, in their words where it matters.
We deliberately do not build listings from third-party directories or aggregator profiles. Those go stale, and stale detail is worse than no detail. The first provider we researched illustrated the point: a widely-cited directory profile listed an office address the firm had moved out of, a firm name it no longer trades under, and performance figures that appear nowhere on the firm’s own site. None of that reached this directory.
“Not published” means the provider does not publish it
Where a field on a listing reads Not published, it means we could not find that detail stated publicly by the provider. It is not a criticism, and it does not mean the information is unavailable — it usually means you have to ask.
We show these gaps rather than hiding the row, because in this market the gaps are the most useful thing on the page. Most firms serving foreign founders do not publish their fees at all. Knowing in advance who will quote you a number on their website and who will not is worth more than any star rating.
We never estimate, infer or fill in blanks
If a provider does not state a price, we do not print a “typical” price. If a provider does not state which languages its staff speak, we do not infer it from a name or a photograph. Nothing on a listing is our guess about a provider.
Every listing carries the date it was checked
Each provider page shows the date we last verified it against the provider’s own site. Japanese immigration and tax rules move quickly — the Business Manager Visa requirements changed substantially on 16 October 2025, and a great deal of English-language material online still describes the previous rules. A listing without a date is a listing you cannot trust, so ours all have one.
We do not rank providers
There is no “best” list here, no scores, and no ordering that implies quality. Providers are grouped by what they do and by where they can serve you. Below the sponsored slots, the order within a group carries no meaning — it is alphabetical, and nothing about it implies quality. The sponsored slots at the top are advertising, labelled as such, and being there says nothing about a firm except that it paid.
This is a deliberate design choice, not modesty. The right firm for a founder with JPY 30 million ready and a Japanese-speaking co-founder is not the right firm for someone applying from overseas with no Japanese. A ranking would flatten that difference and mislead most readers.
Placement is not for sale, and we take no referral fee
Kaisha Guide earns money from flat monthly advertising, and only from flat monthly advertising. Specifically:
- We do not take a commission, referral fee, success fee or per-introduction payment from any provider, ever. When you contact a provider through this site, we are not paid for it and we do not know whether you engaged them.
- Paying us does not change where a provider appears, and it does not change what their listing says. The comparison fields are compiled the same way for advertisers and non-advertisers.
- Any listing that is a paid placement carries a visible Sponsored label wherever it appears. If you do not see that label, no money changed hands.
- A provider cannot pay to have an unfavourable field removed, or to have “Not published” changed to something else. The only way to change that field is to publish the information.
There is a practical reason for this on top of the ethical one. Most of the providers listed here are licensed professionals — gyoseishoshi, zeirishi, shiho-shoshi — and Japanese professional rules restrict paying or receiving fees for client introductions. A flat, disclosed advertising fee is a form both sides can use cleanly. A referral cut is not. Our commercial model and our editorial independence happen to point the same direction.
How a provider gets listed
We add providers we can research. There is no fee to be listed and no application to fill in — being in this directory is not something anyone buys. If you run a firm serving foreign founders in Japan and you are not here yet, let us know and we will look at your published information.
Corrections
If a listing is wrong, out of date, or missing something you do publish, tell us and we will fix it and re-date the listing. Corrections are free, apply equally to advertisers and non-advertisers, and do not require anything in return.
What this site is not
Kaisha Guide is an independent directory. It is not a law firm, a tax firm, an immigration agency or a licensed professional of any kind, and nothing here is legal, tax or immigration advice. We can tell you what firms publish about themselves. We cannot tell you whether your visa application will succeed — only a licensed professional or the relevant Japanese authority can help you with that.