Am not too sure where to post this, so took a blind guess that this might be a good start. I have been asked to look into setting up a branch office for a Japanese language school that would like to have a base of operations within Japan. The company in question asked me to provide rough estimations of setting everything up, the rules, etc. I have a very basic understanding of what everything entails (At least 50k startup money, hiring of at least one Japanese member of staff, etc.) but this only goes for the startup/business investor visa, so who knows if the same goes for branch offices.
As you can tell, I am obviously hella lost so would love to be able to talk to someone in the know. I’ve been Googling around a fair bit, consulting the Wiki as well, but either I’m blind as a bat, or there isn’t much to go on with regards to ‘who’ to ask, so if anyone has any helpful tips, that would be great!
2 comments
>I have a very basic understanding of what everything entails (At least 50k startup money, hiring of at least one Japanese member of staff, etc.
These are the requirements for the Business Manager Visa, ***not*** the requirements for setting up a branch office.
While these requirements may end up applying if the company wants to send you (or someone else) over to run the place, it seems like the sort of business that is probably going to be staffed nearly 100% by Japanese nationals.
The actual process of setting up a business (as distinct from the BMV) is kinda outside the purview of this sub, unfortunately.
As for lawyer recommendations… Can’t really give a direct recommendation, but you want to be looking for actual Japanese corporate law practitioners, not immigration attorneys.
Your post is quite..interesting. A company has asked you, someone who relies on reddit, to give them what essentially amounts to a due dilligence report for opening an overseas branch? Have you made this scenario up just for the sake of acquiring this information? It would be easier if you were upfront about what exact information you need.
To the subject of the post, yes, I have facilitated this process (primarily for the tax portion) for both inbound and outbound corporate clients for years. If you are considering doing this from completely overseas, you would want to, at the very least, discuss with a boutique firm that offers both accounting and legal services, as you will need more than just someone to just “register a bunch of things” if you mean actually launch a branch and not just set one up on paper (keeping books/JGAAP<>local gaap conversions, capital and bank accounts, copyrights, retention of documentation and company seals, representatives, insurance, new qualified invoice system, initial tax filings, etc.).
If you have personnel on the ground here in Japan, they can do a decent amount of heavy-lifting, but would still benefit from professional guidance. If you’re primarily searching in English, you will undoubtedly come across plenty of firms that will talk to you and provide quotes.
Edit: on second thought, the moderator is right that this really has nothing to do with moving to Japan. I’ll leave my post but no need to reply to it.