Japan
In Japan, the company registry is kept by the Legal Affairs Bureaus, and basic corporate numbers are free to look up.
- Official company register
- Commercial and Corporate Registration (Legal Affairs Bureaus) – Registration Information Service; NTA Corporate Number Publication Site
- Free online search
- Partial
- Company identifier
- Corporate Number (法人番号), 13 digits, assigned by the National Tax Agency.
- Who can see beneficial owners
- No central register
- Data access for developers
- Free API
- Company search
- houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp
- Checked on
Look up Japanese companies for free on the National Tax Agency’s Corporate Number Publication Site, which shows the 13-digit Corporate Number, trade name and head office address. The full registration record comes from the Legal Affairs Bureaus’ Registration Information Service at ¥330 per company, or as a certified 登記事項証明書 for ¥490 to ¥600. There is no searchable beneficial ownership register; a company may file a Beneficial Owner List voluntarily and give the certified copy to its bank.
- Region
- Asia-Pacific
- Run by
- Ministry of Justice (Legal Affairs Bureaus); National Tax Agency
- Registry website
- www1.touki.or.jp
- Visible for free
- Corporate Number, trade name and head office address (the NTA's 'basic three items'), with change history.
- Paid documents and fees
- Registration Information Service: full commercial and corporate registration record (商業・法人登記情報 全部事項) ¥330, plus a user registration fee of ¥300 for individuals or ¥740 for corporations. Certificate of registered matters (登記事項証明書), from 1 April 2025: ¥600 by paper request, ¥520 by online request with postal delivery, ¥490 by online request with counter pickup.
- Beneficial ownership register
- Beneficial Owner List system (実質的支配者リスト制度), Legal Affairs Bureaus
- Beneficial ownership access in detail
- The Beneficial Owner List system is voluntary: a kabushiki kaisha may file its list with the commercial registry, which issues a certified copy only to the company for it to give to banks. Third parties cannot search it.
- Beneficial ownership register website
- moj.go.jp
- API or data service
- https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/webapi/
- Search interface languages
- Japanese, English (NTA Corporate Number site only)
- What an official extract contains
- 商業・法人登記情報 (all historical matters for existing companies; closed matters for closed companies); certificate of registered matters (登記事項証明書).
- What to know before a KYB check
- The online Registration Information Service, run by the Minji Houmu Kyokai (民事法務協会), shows the record for viewing only and carries no official seal; order a 登記事項証明書 where a certified extract is needed. The NTA Web-API needs a free application ID, which takes two weeks to a month to issue; full data is a monthly bulk download.
- Sources
Page URL 登記情報提供サービスとは (Registration Information Service) https://www1.touki.or.jp/service/index.html 法務省：登記手数料について https://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/TESURYO/ 法務省：実質的支配者リスト制度 https://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji06_00116.html NTA Corporate Number Publication Site (EN) https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/en/ NTA – About Corporate Numbers https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/en/setsumei/ NTA – Web-API https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/webapi/ NTA – Web-API procedures PDF https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/documents/k-web-api-tetuduki.pdf NTA – Full data download https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/download/zenken/ e-Gov 登記手数料令 https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/324CO0000000140/20250401_507CO0000000033 - Verification
- All fields verified
Questions
How do I look up a Japanese company for free?
How much is a Japanese company registration record?
Does Japan have a beneficial ownership register?
Sources: each listing is compiled from the registry’s own website, the government body that runs it, official fee schedules and legislation, and the EU e-Justice portal. Every source is linked on the listing with the date it was checked. How we compile this reference